acre, the incomes to the persons who have now profitable tenures, would amount to £275,000, which, at sixteen years' purchase, would be worth £4,400,000. Now we consider that it would be well worth the consideration of the empire, to purchase thus up the tenants' vested rights in the church lands of Ireland, at a sacrifice such as this, in order that thereby Ireland might be relieved from that eternal source of agitation, reproach, and misrepresentation, the payment of tithes from Dissenters and Romanists, to a clergy that give them in return no value. The empire might in this case, either pay off the church tenants altogether, by money borrowed at 4 per cent.; or they might in lieu of the present claim, hand them over debentures to the amount of the purchase money, at the same rate; or if tenants were refractory, the Government might refuse all future fines, and pay the bishops out of the treasury, the full annual amount of their present income, until the expiration of the twenty-one year's lease. The empire then at large, would be called to raise by taxes the sum of £176,000 per annum, to pay the church property tenants. It would also have to purchase up the lay impropriators of Ireland, whose tithe income does not amount to more than £80,000 per annum, and calculating that property at not more than twelve years' purchase, another million would purchase it, and that would call for £40,000 more taxes, making the transfer of tithe property of the church to cost the empire in permanent taxes, the sum of 216,000 per annum. We will then suppose that at this sacrifice, the government has dominion over the tithes of Ireland, and what would be done with them? Should they be given up to the only class in the country that would benefit by their abolition ?-certainly not. Of all men living, Irish landlords deserve less of their country-they never supported the church-they were ever the first to commit spoliation on her, and now they may not, must not, benefit by her surrender! No, let the tithes, the strict tenth tithe-the full tenth of the produce of the land, be appropriated to the support of the imbecile poor-to the employment on useful works of the able bodied poor; and let the Protestant landowner, and the Popish landholder, find their loss, when they have exchanged king log for king stork; so that when their tenth sheaf of corn, and their tenth ridge of potatoes, and tenth fat sheep, and tenth cow, are forced from them by the poor, whom they dare not refuse-perhaps as far as their own selfishness is concerned, they will experience that it would have been better to have abided by the Protestant clergy. But it may be said that the plan would not remove discontent, inasmuch as Roman Catholics would still have to pay in taxes their share of the interest of the £5,300,000, that would be required. That they would complain there is no doubt, and if nothing was to be done until a security was obtained against complaint, things might remain in statu quo as long as rivers run. But surely they would have no just cause of complaint, inasmuch as Ireland would not be called on to pay a larger share than she does of every other tax-one seventeenth; and as Protestants in Ireland are the pricpal tax-payers, holding still as they do, nine-tenths of the property in the island, the burthen that would fall upon Roman Catholics would be small indeed. What is above stated, is to be sure a very rough sketch of a perhaps very crude plan; but still we hold that it is worthy of the consideration of more experienced and sage persons. The proposed scheme no doubt amounts to a commutation; but, though commutation has at all times been looked on, and very justly, by the clergy with great jealousy, we submit that this commutation is free from the bad consequences that would attend on such as contemplated a fixed income, that would never rise, or that was subject to the immediate control or caprice of the state; Whereas here would only be a reinstating the clergy into the full rights of their own domains; and as all other landed properties rose or fell, so would theirs also, and the clergy would, as they should, go with the times. We approve of Mr. Senior's suggestion of vesting the receipts of these landed incomes in a corporation, such as the Board of First Fruits, so as that all Incumbents should draw as it were from one common fund. We cannot say what our readers may think of the above proposition. Some may suspect our motive, and exclaim, "the Examiner is a snake in the grass." But indeed we feel conscious that in making the above proposition for a commutation, we are not the church's foes; certainly we are not so dangerous to her as those who, when she is beleagured by her enemies, and her fortress is sapped from underneath, and when the batteringtrain, and the mine, and the moving masses are all in readiness for one common storm-would propose no terms-accept of no capitulation, but rather abide the onslaught, than abate a point. We cannot conclude this article without remarking on what Mr. Senior proposes, concerning a pension for the Romish clergy. He is strenuous that they should no longer live on dues extracted from the people, but that the lands of the bishops of the Established Church should be taken from the present owners, and appropriated to their benefit. Now we think we have pointed out a much better use to which they may be applied. We also think we have pointed out a way in which the poor of Ireland may be relieved; and as to the Popish priests, let Mr. Senior, and other theore tical Englishmen imagine what vain things they may, concerning their EsTABLISHMENT in Ireland, we, as Christian Examiners, never can consent to it-we never can consent that the upholders of a soul destroying system should be LEGALISED in the land. Could we compromise principlecould we consent to the Jesuistry of allowing evil to be done, that good might come from it, we might consent to their being invested with the tithe property either wholly or in part; and thus make them such a present, as Nessus made to Hercules; thus we might with cunning foresight, lay a scheme for embroiling them with their people-thus we might turn the tables, and make ourselves popular on their eventual unpopularity. But no, fiat justitia ruat cœlum—and never may the Protestant clergy of Ireland be a consenting party to an arrangement whereby Popery shall be any thing but a tolerated evil in the land; short of this, let us make any sacrifice-short of this, let our churchmen show that every thing else they are willing to forego for the peace of the country, and the happiness of the people. NOTICES OF BOOKS. Greenland Missions, with Biographical Sketches of civilized and social life, and made themselves the principal Converts. Dublin: published by the Religious Tract Society. We know not a more interesting subject, nor could we wish the subject to bave fallen into hands more likely to do it justice. The Moravian settlements in Greenland have a degree of romance attached to them beyond most other scenes consecrated by pious and holy recollections, and this owing to the degree of heroic devotedness with which the Moravian brethren sacrificed all that was desirable in the companions of savages, subject to like privations, and exposed not only to the inhospitable climate, but to the tender mercies of its inhabitants, more inhospitable still. We remember to have heard a talented Moravian clergyman attempt to account for the remarkable fact, that his sect baving succeeded with the most degraded, and apparently hope less of the human race, have failed when they directed their exertions against those of a more elevated cast. Without attempting to follow the excellent man in his reasoning, or even to affirm the truth of one part of his statement, the other is incontrovertible, that they have succeeded against hope; and he who doubts the efficacy of the simple gospel, preached by men themselves simple and untaught, may be referred to the icy shores of Greenland and Labrador, the sandy plains of Africa, and the proscribed plantations of the West Indies, The kraal of the Hottentot, the cottage of the Negro, and the snow-hut of the Esquimaux, afford the most unequivocal instance of human obduracy and ignorance yielding to the power of divine grace, and the efficacy of the word of the Spirit, when bandled by faith and charity. The compiler of this volume has of course drawn largely upon Egedes, Crantz, and the accounts of the Moravian missionaries, and has provided a little volume well calculated to impress the young with the power of religion, and to bring home to the hearts of all its soothing and consolatory truths. Palestine, or the Holy Land, from the earliest time to the present. By the Rev. M. Russell, Author of the Ancient and Modern Egypt. Edinburgh 1831. This beautiful volume, as to typography, research and talent, may well stand beside its three predecessors in the Cabinet Library, of which it forms a part. Dr. Russell has given a connected and philosophical survey of this most interesting country, from the period of the settlement of the Israelites, through their various governments and vicissitudes, until the present time, accompanied by geographical and literary notices of the character, customs, and learning of that remarkable people. In his compilation, he has laid most modern travellers under contribution, and the reader will find in it a well condensed epitome of the various volumes that have been published upon the subject. We regret that we cannot bestow unqualified praise upon this well executed volume, but we are forced to say, that we have remarked an use of the language, call ed philosophical which has a tendency to lower the authority and to diminish the respect entertained for the sacred Scriptures. We have on a former occasion been obliged to animadvert on the style and manner of a learned historian of the Jews, and on another to express ourselves strongly on the opinions of our learned Author himself, and when we say that the volume before us should be read with caution, and the Author's sentiments examined before they are received, we only perform our duty to the Christian public. Hints on Emigration to Upper Canada. By Martin Doyle. Dublin-William Curry-1831. Mr. Doyle is a very liberal person as to Hints; and certainly no churl in affording advice, and what is still better and more to the purpose, his generosity is not concerned about things worthless in themselves, and what costs him nothing quite the reverse; the quality is equal to the quantity; and he takes no small pains, and uses no little industry, in bringing before his beloved Irish such good counsel and such practical instruction as may raise them in the scale of human beings, and make them respectable in character and pros perous in condition. We are therefore glad to see this best of all the Doyles in print again, and cannot but acknowledge that the tract before us is a very useful and entertaining treatise, in which he collects all the prac tical bints and details his sound judgment can assimilate, to exhibit the economy of emigration; and doubtless all Irishmen in future who in the spirit of adventure, and who fancying that hills afar off must be green, deter mine to forego their native land, will bring Martin Doyle's Hints along with them, as a necessary, and not to be done without article of sea store. At the same time, when we say all this, we are free to confess, that we should rather see Martin's mind engaged in the task of withholding his country men from emigration than encouraging them; and in our humble opinion there is a spirit now abroad, that in this respect requires rather a rein than a spur; not but that we think emigration, when well directed, and undertaken as a national object, to be most desirable. But the deportation of paupers, who departing from the shores of Ireland with just as much means as will land them pennyless on the banks of the St. Lawrence, we deem to be fraught with untold and unutterable misery. Moreover, it is with deep regret that we see Protestants disposing of all their substance, and departing for the western wilderness. Sure we are, that as the day is coming when they must again be valued, so, perhaps, it would be better that in patience they would possess their souls, and bear in mind that a few Irish acres, with an Irish climate, and Irish comforts and customs, together with the benefits of education, religion, and all the associations that have grown with their growth and ripened with their strength-are better to bave and to hold than a Canadian forest. Yes, better to keep these, and bear along with them the ills they have, than fly to the western wildernesshandle the forest ax, and amidst a few acres of ground cleared from the dreary forest, encounter the eternal stings of mosquitos, en dure almost the certainty of the marsh and lake fever, bear with the terrible vicissitudes of an American climate, its withering winter, its blazing summer-be cut off in a great measure from social life, from the opportuni. ties of knowledge for himself, and education for his children-forced in a great measure to forego the blessings of congregational and social worship, and to bear, in the dreary forest, not the sounds of the church-going bell but the strokes of the woodpecker, and the deceivings of the mocking bird; and what is worse for a poor Irishman, be cast upon the temptation of cheap whiskey: induced, under a burning sun to slake thirst with this worst 1 of all prisons, and become a victim to excess, that grows on him before he is aware of it. The fault we find with this tract of our friend Martin, is, that like many other compilers, as well as travellers and letter-writers, be puts a fairer face upon the distant land than it deserves; and we really fear that worthy Mr. Doyle, if by his specious book he induces many of his countrymen to emigrate, will feel his ears often hot, as it is said those do who at a distance are severely spoken of; and when a poor Irishman, tempted by him to transport himself, finds himself thrown penny less amongst heartless strangers, without work, or the ability to work in the way that is chalked out for him with the wilderness it is true, before him, but a wilderness where is the mosquiteo, and where is the ague, where he may be rost bitten in winter, and fever struck in summer-yes, good Mr. Martin Doyle, your ears may tingle even with sympathies borne across the Atlantic at the curses cast upon your head, for tempting poor Paddy to forego the healthy potatoe fields and gentle temperatures of healthy Old Ireland. That we are not imagining difficulties to the Irish settler in Canada that do not really exist; that we are not endeavouring to frighten without reason our countrymen from emigration, we shall prove by making a few extracts from the work of a man, just as sensible and practical as Mr. Doyle, a man who resided in Canada for some years, and who experienced the rough as well as the smooth of the country. We allude to Letters on Canada written by Mr. M'Taggart, who was employed as working engineer on the great Rideau canal, which at a monstrous expense is being constructed to connect Lower Canada by means of the great Otawa river with Lake Ontario. This work of Mr. M'Taggart's has given us more practical knowledge concerning Canada, than any other we have yet seen; and it is besides written in a very lively and entertaining strain. Mr. M'Taggart thus speaks with respect to emigration; "There is nothing I am so willing to coincide in, than the opinion that poor people ought not to emigrate to Canada; lood is not to be had merely for the eating; nor is employment readily procured. A common labourer can find nothing to do for almost six months in the year, until he has learned the use of the hatchet (which by the way is not so easy.) "It takes an Irishman more especially a long time to learn that use, if he has been accustomed to the spade and shovel. The common people of Ireland seem to be awkward and unbandy. What they are used to they do well, but put them out of their old track, and it is almost impossible to teach them any thing. A Glasgow weaver, though he bas lived all along amidst bobbins and shuttles, makes a much better settler." " At Bytown on the Otawa, the Irish, sooner than build a wooden bouse, burrow in the sand bills: here families pig together worse than in IreVOL. XI. land; you cannot get the low Irish to wash their faces, you cannot get them to dress decently; they will smoke, drink, eat murphies, brawl, box, set the house on fire about their ears, even though a sentinel with a fixed bayonet was standing over them to prevent them.” Here you see, good Mr. Martin, that cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. Which classical saw may be thus Englished Martin, say what you please, still Paddy and Mary, Will in Canada do as they did in Tipperary. Mr. M'Taggart goes on to say, that " Liv ing in such a manner, what must be the consequence in a climate such as Canada; it is bad in Ireland, but there it is much worse: they die by dozens, not of hunger but of disease; they will not provide in summer against the inclemency of the winter. In my opinion one-tenth of all the poor Irish emigrants, perish the first two years they are in the country, and when they will not amend their ways of their own accord, there will be few found alive after being five years in the country," "Emigration of the poor may probably answer a good end, as lessening the dense population of Ireland: but it will never do for Canada. It may be argued that they are necessary as labourers at public works. I would say, no such thing. Had I work in Canada, I would not employ the Irish, were it not for mere charity; the native Canadians are much better labourers, whereas the Irish are always growling, quarreling, and never content with their wages," "I am quite of opinion that emigration only increases the distress of the Irish; and they may just as well die in Ireland as Canada." "Suppose they are put on cleared land to live by farming, they will only exert themselves so far as that they may not starve; they will not struggle for any comforts beyond that." "There are many self-interested people, who praise emigration up in high terms; and who pick up perquisites out of the tattered pockets of poor emigrants. There is property to be obtained out of poverty itself; and there are men who fatten on beggars: for few emigrants arrive in Canada, who have not something-even though that be but an old chest full of rags, still it has value. While they remain strangers to the country, a good deal of work may be got out of them; for greedy and heartless sharks get all they can out of them, and then turn them adriit." "Poor ignorant Irish people, when they arrive in the colony, are apt to feel themselves considerably elevated, and will not toil for mere bread; and the idea of being proprietors has a most intoxicating effect on them. I have seen them burrying into the woods with a very indifferent hatchet, a small pack on back, followed by a way-worn wife and her children, there to live for a time on AIR; and we have met them again, crawling out; and where is the heart that would not melt at the sight — 3 T some of the children most likely dead, and the rest all bit and blinded by musquitos." "We observe emigrants from Ireland will cling together like Scotch or Americans; but not for one another's mutual benefit; a wealtby Irish settler will not serve bis countrymen as much as we are led to expect. He will cry IRELAND FOR EVER, but will be help to build buts over their heads, or plant a few potatoes?- -no such thing." Mr. M'Taggart makes also some pertinent remarks on the practice of emigrants writing over to their friends extremely lavourable accounts of their own situation, and of the excellence of the country, &c. This we our selves know to be a common deceit. We not long ago saw a letter from an old Tipperary farmer, who had emigrated to Upper Canada, in which he spoke wonders of the country, and great things of his own happiness; and when his sons, tempted by his delusion, went over to join him, they found he was but a mere squatter in the woods, and that he had just died, baving been frost-bitten the preceding winter. We have given the above extracts from Mr. M'Taggart's work, to neutralize the present excitement for emigration; which is, we fear, likely to prevail to an extent very mischievous to Ireland. An honest statement of the real benefits and evils of emigration is quite desirable, and we believe if the truth was fairly told, and all the failures, and all the mischiefs, deaths, diseases, and broken down constitutions exhibited, as well as the fortunate allocations of a few who drew prizes in this adventurous lottery-sure we are that such an exposure would check the ambition of many, and tempt them to reflect that prudence, for titude, and religious self-denial, will enable them to live respectably at home: while bad habits, engendered by a bad education, and loose morals, given way to under a false religion, will make a man wretched and destitute and disrespectable, though he ranged the globe. American Biography; or Memoirs of Mrs. Ann Judson, and Mrs. Martha Laurens Ramsey. Abridged for the use of Village Libraries. By the Author of Lily Douglas.' Edinburgh, Oliphant, Dublin, Curry, 1831. We think this is a very excellent little volume. It presents, in an abridged form, the narratives of two well known and truly illustrious lemales, whose careers on earth were totally distinct, but whose names will not soon perish from the records of the church of God. The one exhibits in a way that must thrill the dullest heart, what Divine Grace can fit a delicate female to perform ABROAD, and the man or woman who can trace Mrs. Judson through the streets of Ava, and follow ber, as she followed her husband, from pri son to prison, from the presence of the Gol den Foot to that of the meanest and most savage barbarian that guarded his dungeons, without a tear starting to the eye, without a feeling of intense interest, without admiration of that unflinching spirit which sustained her amid trials that might seem enough to smile a stouter frame in the dust, must have a heart dead to human sympathies. The other displays what the same Grace can fit an indi. vidual to do AT HOME, as a daughter, a wife, and a mother-and we like the volume bet. ter for the contrast-because we have known a young and ardent imagination so strung by the perusal of the memoirs of Mrs. Judson, and so fired by desire to tread the same path of suffering and of honour in the service of God, as to be long incapable of fulfilling the duties of the station allotted by Providence. The great expansion of missionary zeal and exertion in our day, has presented us with a few exemplifications of that apostolic spirit which neither "perils of waters, perils of rob. bers, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, weariness, painfulness, bunger, thirst, fastings, cold or nakedness," can daunt or appal. Greenland and Burmab are engraven on the tablet of missionary history "as with lead in the rock for ever!" God grant that such blessed examples of faith and patience may stir emulation in many hearts, and awaken over the whole extent of the militant church that deep feeling, that strong and holy resolution, which will never sit down till the earth spreads out its hands to worship Him! We recommend this volume as being well calculated to assist in such exciting and animating desires-and we trust that Britain will, ere long, present her roll of female worthies, whose names will stand oa as equal and honourable a footing, as the Newells, the Huntingdons, the Grahams, the Ramseys, and the Judsons of American biography. DOMESTIC RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. PROPHETICAL DISCUSSION. Our readers are perhaps aware, that a large meeting of Clergymen and others interested in the study of unfulfilled prophecy, was held at Powerscourt House in the County of Wick low, during four successive days in the first week of October. We subjoin the questions discussed, and regret that we are unable this month to present our readers with a report of the concluding observations by the Rev. Robert Daly, which we are forced to omit for want of room. We hope to give them insertion next month. Among the persons present |