of England and Ireland, shall be deemed and be taken

universities ever since the year 1702, a period of 147 years. For the first 120 years of that period the Primates, eight in number, were all Englishmen by birth, as well as by education. The present Primate, who has held the office for twenty-seven years, is an Irishman, but was educated at Oxford.

Dublin stands next to Armagh in point of dignity, and since the year 1682 to the present time (a period of 167 years) this see has been held as follows by

3 Irishmen, educated at Dublin University, for an aggregate period of

Years.

41

2 Irishmen, educated at Oxford, for an aggregate period of 10 9 Archbishops (eight English, and one Scotch), all educated

at the English universities, for an aggregate period of - 116 14 Archbishops.

167

The above period of 167 years includes forty-eight since the Union. During those forty-eight years, Dublin has been held by

Years. 1 Irishman by birth and education (Archbishop Magee) for 9 2 Irishmen by birth, educated at Oxford, for an aggregate period of

3 Englishmen, educated at the English universities, for an aggregate period of

6 Archbishops.

10

29

48

Until lately, Derry was next to Armagh in point of emolument; and since 1703, this see has been held by twelve prelates, of whom

Years.

9 were English by birth and education. Aggregate period 99 3 were Irish by birth, and probably also by education. Aggregate period

12 Bishops.

47

146

The other sees do not, in general, present so great a prepon

to be an essential and fundamental part of the union;

derance of Englishmen ; but still they exhibit a large amount of Church patronage abstracted from Irishmen in order to be bestowed upon English Churchmen, generally speaking of very inferior character, as respects the qualifications, which must ever be deemed essential for the office of a Christian Bishop.

In some late appointments the principle of nominating Irishmen appears to have been acted upon, but notwithstanding this, at the present moment the Irish Episcopal Bench is occupied by thirteen prelates, of whom six only are Dublin men. The remaining seven (including both the archbishops) have received their education. at the English universities. Of these seven two are English

men.

On the other hand, not even a solitary instance exists of an Irishman advanced to an English bishopric since the Reformation. Promotions to the see of Sodor and Man cannot be justly accounted an exception. Probably the same may be affirmed with respect to inferior English dignities, such as deaneries and archdeaconries. union has caused no difference in this respect.

The

With regard to translations, there have been, since the Reformation, only six from Irish to English sees, the prelates translated being all Englishmen.

1. Hugh Curwin, Archbishop of Dublin, (he had previously been Dean of Hereford and Archdeacon of Oxford) growing old and infirm, and wishing to end his days in his own country, was translated to the see of Oxford in 1567.

2. Marmaduke Middleton, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, translated to St. David's, in 1582. This prelate was afterwards degraded, and deprived at Lambeth, for contriving and publishing a forged will.

3. John Thornborough, born at Salisbury, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, Bishop of Limerick, translated to Bristol 1603, holding the Deanery of York by commendam with each of those sees." Godwin (De Præsulibus Angliæ, 472.) describes him as "Rerum * Vide Le Neve's Fasti. He was Dean of York from 1589 to 1616.

and that in like manner, the doctrine, worship, discipline

politicarum potius quam theologicarum et artis chemica peritia clarus."

4. William Murray, Bishop of Kilfenora, translated to Llandaff in 1627 or 1628.

5. William Fuller, born in London, previously Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe, 1663; translated to Lincoln, 1667.

6. Edward Jones, Bishop of Cloyne, was translated from that see to St. Asaph in 1692.

It has also been frequently urged that the Protestant religion in Ireland has not advanced with those rapid strides it ought to have done. But the reason is obvious: the Church in Ireland has always been made subservient to political purposes, and even the grossest ignorance has been no obstacle to advancement to the highest ecclesiastical preferments. Thus, within the last twenty-six years, a man, after having been elevated to the Irish episcopal bench, said that "the Greek language was very perplexing, as it was read from right to left"!

One of the objects of the Reformation in England was, that the Book of Common Prayer should be read in a language that every person understood; consequently, it was read in English. Stat. 5 Eliz. c. 28. after reciting that "the queen, like a most godly and virtuons princess, having chief respect and regard to the honour and glory of God, and the souls' health of her subjects, did in the first year of her reign, by the authority of her high court of parliament, chiefly for that purpose called, set forth a Book of Common Prayer and Order for the Administration of Sacraments in the vulgar English tongue, to be used through all her realm of England, Wales, and the marches of the same, that thereby her highness' most loving subjects understanding in their own language the terrible and fearful threatenings rehearsed in the Book of God against the wicked and malefactors, the pleasant and infallible promises made to the elect and chosen flock, with a just order to rule and guide their lives according to the commandments of God, might much

and government of the Church of Scotland shall remain,

better learn to love and fear God, to serve and obey their prince, and to know their duties towards their neighbours; which book being received as a most precious jewel with an unspeakable joy of all such her subjects as did and do understand the English tongue, the which tongue is not understanded of the most and greatest number of all her majesty's most loving and obedient subjects inhabiting within her highness' dominion and country of Wales, being no small part of this. realm, who therefore are utterly destitute of God's holy Word, and do remain in the like or rather more darkness and ignorance than they were in the time of papistry," enacted "that the Bishops of Hereford, Saint David, Asaph, Bangor and Llandaff, and their successors, shall take such order amongst themselves for the souls' health of the flocks committed to their charge within Wales, that the whole Bible, containing the New Testament and the Old, with the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, as is now used within this realm in English, to be truly and exactly translated into the British or Welsh tongue; and that the same so translated, being by them viewed, perused and allowed, be imprinted to such number at the least, that one of either sort may be had for every cathedral, collegiate and parish church, and chapel of ease, in such places and countries of every the said dioceses where that tongue is commonly spoken or used, before the first day of March, anno Dom. one thousand five hundred sixty-six. And that from that day forth, the whole Divine Service shall be used and said by the curates and ministers throughout all the said dioceses where the Welsh tongue is commonly used, in the said British or Welsh tongue, in such manner and form as is now used in the English tongue, and differing nothing in any order or form from the English book."

b

In Albany v. St. Asaph (Bishop of), the want of knowledge in the Welsh tongue was declared to be a good cause of refusal, when the service was to be performed in that language, as rendering the clerk incapable of the cure; nor did it avail to allege that the language

* Vide 1 Stephens, Ecclesiastical Statutes, 415, 416.

and be preserved as the same are now established by law,

might be learned, or that the part of the cure he was incapable of might be discharged by a curate."

The law is the same if the person presented does not understand the English tongue, for in such case the bishop may refuse him for incapacity. And where there is a mixture of divers languages in any place, the rule of the canon law is, that the person presented do understand the several languages :-Quoniam in plerisque partibus. infra eandem civitatem atque diœcesim, permixti sunt populi diversarum linguarum, habentes sub unâ fide varios ritus et mores; districtè præcipimus ut pontifices hujusmodi civitatum sive diœcesum provideant viros idoneos, qui, secundum diversitates rituum et linguarum, divina illis officia celebrent, et ecclesiastica sacramenta ministrent, instruendo eos verbo, pariter et exemplo.

In regard to Wales, these facts are, therefore, incontestible. That the Book of Common Prayer has been translated from the English language into the Welsh because the people of Wales did not understand English; that where the Welsh tongue is commonly used, Divine Service is to be said and used in that tongue; and that ignorance of the Welsh language is a sufficient cause for a bishop to refuse ordination to a candidate ; and the result has been, that in Wales the Roman Catholic religion is almost unknown. But in Ireland, notwithstanding that in the time of Elizabeth, four-fifths of the population understood no language but the Irish, no statutable provisions were made to have the Book of Common Prayer translated into Irish, or that clergymen should speak the vernacular language of their flocks; but on the contrary, seemingly to provide for Englishmen, it was expressly enacted by stat. 2 Eliz. c. 2. s. 15. (Ir.) that the Book of Common Prayer should only be read in English or Latin. And it may here be observed, that even in 1537 stat. 28. Henry VIII. c. 15. s. 7. (Ir.) directed

Vide stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106. ss. 103, 104, 105. Stat. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 77.

s. 12. 2 Stephens, Ecclesiastical Statutes, 1876, 2224.

b Watson's Clergyman's Law, 214.

Decret. lib. ix. t. 31. c. 11. 1 Stephens, on the Laws relating to the Clergy,