lican "mustard tree" over-shadowing Ireland as well as England; and after a 300 years' trial, few comparatively of the Irish are disposed to "lodge in the branches thereof." Henry VIII. could, and did, call it "the Irish Church;" but all his absolute power could not make it such.

Charles.-How is this?

Mr. Fairfield.-"Twere long to tell and sad to trace." The principal reason is, that the Irish recoiled from it because it was the Church of their English oppressors. Since the Ecclesiastical Council of Cashel, where Catholicism was established in Ireland, the nation had gradually become Catholic. Whatever spark of the Reformation might be in it three centuries ago would be at once stifled by the authoritative imposition of Protestantism upon them by the English Crown; and also by the flagitious character of the prelates. "They live like laymen," said the Poet Spenser; baptizing and drawing their tithes being the only duties they did. This had long been their character. The Earl of Kildare, before the Reformation period, when charged with burning down the Cathedral of Cashel, deemed it defence enough to plead that "he thought the Archbishop was in it." The good Bishop Bedell, after the Reformation, found "bribes going about barefaced," and "both Heaven and God Himself set to sale," and the clergy, taking no care of the people, other than "making them pay their tithes." He and Archbishop Usher, and Bishop Berkeley, and a few more, were solitary gems amid the refuse. Some of those miscreants brought themselves to the gibbet by unnatural crimes. These enormities, and persecuting laws, provoked the massacre of 1641. Confiscations during these two dismal centuries amounted to more, by one-fourth, than the whole area of Ireland. Such, in brief, was the genesis of the Irish Establishment. Well might the poet Moore (in his "Captain Rock") racily suggest to English Protestantism,

on its endeavours to convert Ireland, to try the experiment of changing places with the Irish Catholics, by making over to them the endowments, in hope of thereby paralysing them, and putting zeal into itself.

Edward.-Had those strong measures with the Catholics no effect whatever in bringing them over to Protestantism?

Mr. Fairfield.-Only such effect as might be expected. Under the cruel confiscations that ensued, especially after the troublous events of 1641 and 1688, and the diabolical laws that made it next to impossible for a Catholic to retain any property, many nominal conversions to Protestantism were made. But no sooner were those penal laws relaxed, and ere long abrogated, and the Encumbered Estates' Act passed in this very generation, than the Irish landlords began to shake off their light cloak of Protestantism. Canon McNeile some time ago built a plausible argument on the comparative amounts paid by Protestant and Catholic landowners to the Church revenues; but the fallacy of this is transparent. It has been computed that forty-two per cent. of the landlords of Ireland are now Roman Catholics.

Henry.—I should like to know something more definite in regard to the extent of the Established Church in Ireland, and its proportion to the popula tion.

Mr. Fairfield.-It has two archiepiscopal provinces-Armagh and Dublin; twelve dioceses; 1,510 benefices; and, including curates, 2,172 clergymen. Such is the provision the State makes for 678,473 persons, being less than oneeight of the entire population, which is 5,793,967.

Henry. It is to be hoped that the Church of so small a minority will not be very exacting to those who do not belong to it.

Mr. Fairfield.-The very reverse is the fact. It is paid out of the ancient ecclesiastical revenues of Ireland. Nay, it absorbs the whole of these resources.

More exasperating still, the Catholics, until 1834, had to pay tithes directly to the Anglican clergy, and had to contribute largely to the building of churches, and other Protestant expenses besides. By the Commutation Act, the tithes are now charged upon the land; but then, as we have seen, forty-two per cent of the landlords are Catholics. Then there are 200 Irish parishes, save one, where there is not a single professed member of the Anglican Church, and 575 parishes where there are only from 1 to 20 Anglicans, parsons, and parish officials included, in the midst of teeming Catholic populations.

Henry. And yet such a Church has a monopoly of the ancient ecclesiastical revenues of Ireland! What may the "little bill" amount to annually?

Mr. Fairfield.-Something very moderate, indeed, if we are to believe the Lord Primate Beresford, who, in a charge delivered in 1864, says that the incomes of the Established Clergy in Ireland "have been pared down to the lowest sum compatible with the existence of the Church in this country." The minimum conditions of ecclesiastical existence in Ireland must be rather respectable, for in more than one-third of the benefices, containing each on an average of only from 70 to 80 Protestants among from 2,000 to 3,000 Catholics, the average living exceeds £300, which, to say the least, is out of all proportion to the work. To do the Lord Primate justice, however, he ought to be credited with views of vital require

ments that greatly transcend the common, for he belongs to a family whose total receipts, in three generations, from Church property, can scarcely have been less than from three to four millions sterling.*

Henry.-Will you now tell us how much it costs every year to keep up the Established Church in Ireland?

Mr. Fairfield.-The gross revenue of the Established Church in Ireland from all sources, is £586,428 8s. 1d. Twelve bishops receive a net annual income of £55,110 2s. 9d., or on an average of £4,592 to each prelate-a rate surely which cannot yet be said to have been "pared down" to the quick. The remaining portion of the revenue belongs to the beneficed clergymen, and if divided among the 1,500 benefices in Ireland, would give to each incumbent £335 a year; or, if divided among incumbents and curates, would give to each of 2,172 clergymen an average income of more than £230 per annum. The writer, on whom I am freely drawing for these particulars (Mr. Skeats), adds that the above gross income (£586,428) does not include the value of the Bishop's palaces and glebe houses, nor the amount of the various stipends paid to the Anglican Clergy for ministering to members of the Established Church, in public and charitable institutions, such as gaols, asylums, and workhouses. The first item alone Mr. Skeats estimates at £40,000. Let this suffice for a brief outline of the system.

him a weight and influence which, as they have often been exercised with the happiest results in the past, would have been specially valuable in the earnest work which is at present before us.

*See "The Irish Church," by Herbert S. Skeats, p. 31, 2nd Edition.

We, in common with thousands, desired that he might be spared to render such service; but the Master has called His servant to his reward, and we can only meekly acquiesce.

Dr. Vaughan was to a large extent a self-made man.* He did, indeed, receive a certain amount of training for the ministry under Rev. William Thorp, of Bristol, of whom he always spoke with affection and respect; but it was mainly to his own intense love of learning, and his indomitable perseverance, and his force of character, that he was indebted for the high reputation he won. More than once have we heard him tell the story of the purchase of his first book at an old book-stall, of the eagerness with which he secured it, the value he attached to it, the avidity with which he devoured its contents. He was born to be a student; and inclination combined with a strong sense of duty induced him to abandon his original calling, and devote himself to more congenial pursuits. His strong faith in the Gospel laid upon him the necessity to preach it to others, and it was his happiness to consecrate his powers to a work which had enlisted all the deepest convictions of his intellect, and the warmest sympathies of his heart. He gave

himself to the Congregational ministry as the result of deliberate and intelligent preference. His æsthetic tastes might have dictated a different course, but his love of freedom, his admiration of their great Puritan ancestry, and, above all, his sympathy with their broader and more Scriptural views of truth, led him to unite himself with Congregationalists.

His first pastorate was at Worcester, where he laboured for six years, and pleasant recollections of his ministry there are cherished by many to this day. But it was after his removal to Kensington, where he spent the greater part

*We are indebted for this Sketch to the English Independent.

of his ministerial life, that he became more extensively known. His preaching, though too thoughtful and philosophical to be extensively popular, attracted a large number of hearers belonging to a class not often to be found in Dissenting chapels. He addressed himself chiefly to men of intelligence and culture, and by them his ministry was highly appreciated; and, while it served to win for Congregationalism the respect of circles where hitherto it had been unknown or despised, it did, we believe, a still nobler work by commending the principles of the Gospel of Christ, so clearly expounded, and so powerfully enforced. His position as Professor of History in the University of London contributed to the increase of his influence, and marked him out as a man of scholarly habits and attainments. But, still more, his books earned for him a wide-spread and deserved reputation. First appeared his two historical works, "The Life of Wycliffe" and "Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty," and some years later his series of small volumes on "Religious Parties in England," "Congregationalism and Modern Society," and the "Modern Pulpit." We believe it was these books which recommended him to the Committee of the Lancashire Independent College, then anxious to find a President whose name and character should be worthy of the great institution which they had founded. They wanted not only a man of learning, but one of experienced and practical wisdom, and Dr. Vaughan's books, indicating so high a conception of the work of the pulpit, so philosophical an estimate of the religious character of the times, and such earnest aspirations for the fuller development of the power of Congregationalism, pointed him out as eminently qualified for the position to which they elected him.

The choice was undoubtedly a wise one, for though it would have been quite possible to find men more profoundly

versed in scholastic theology, it would not have been easy to select one who would have exerted a more stimulative influence on the students on the one hand, or have won more of general confidence for the College on the other. The President of a Nonconformist College is to be valued not so much for the information he communicates as for the spirit which he awakens; and in this respect Dr. Vaughan was eminently useful. The force of his own example, his devotion to study, his high-minded spirit and dignified bearing, his scorn of everything mean and unworthy, his loyalty to the principles, his intense sympathy in all the work of Congregationalism, was generally felt by his students, and there are many of them now occupying positions of influence who gratefully confess how much they owe to the inspiring power both of his words and his life. But it was not in the College alone that his influence was felt. Lancashire Nonconformity was largely indebted to him, and the enthusiastic welcome given to him on his appearance in Manchester at the last autumnal meeting of the Union showed how gratefully his work is remembered. Having presided over the College for fourteen years, he resolved in 1857 to seek comparative retirement, partly to secure the quiet he felt to be necessary to his health, and partly to devote himself to literary work.

For a short time afterwards he held a pastorate at Uxbridge, but his time during the last few years has been given mainly to literature. We need not dwell at length on his labours in connection with the British Quarterly Review. It was no slight honour to be the founder of a work which has given Congregational Dissent a new position in the literary world, and the honour is all the greater because of the special discouragements and difficulties amid which Dr. Vaughan commenced and prosecuted his arduous undertaking. Among the books of his later days were

his "Memorial of English Nonconformity," a Bicentenary volume, his history of "Revolutions in England,” a work which reflects the highest credit on his industry and learning, and on which, probably, his permanent reputation will depend. Nor should we forget his valuable little treatise on Ritualism; his brief but telling exposition of the State Church argument; and his admirable volume of Family Prayers. It was only last autumn that he removed to Torquay to enter on new ministerial labours, which have now been suddenly closed. A severe attack of congestion on the brain, probably the result of the excessive energy of years, rapidly did its work, and terminated a life of honour and usefulness on the morning of the 15th of June.

We cannot attempt here to characterize his genius, or fully to estimate the influence he has exerted on the Congregationalism of our day. The sense of his worth, however, twice found special expression in large testimonials, raised not by a congregation, but by a large circle of admirers-the first on his resignation of the chair at Manchester in 1857, and the last on his retirement in 1865 from the editorship of the British Quarterly. But no such tribute could do justice to the admiration felt for him, and felt more strongly now that he is gone. It is when we miss those spirit-stirring words in which he was wont to kindle afresh enthusiasm on behalf of the cause he loved so well -when the vacant place of the noble veteran who, by his manly utterances, has so often ministered strength and confidence to younger men, reminds us of the severity of the loss we have sustained-when the moderating influence of his wise and sagacious counsels is missed in some hour of perplexity, or when in some grave crisis we long for a champion as brave and heroic-that we shall understand how great a man and how true a prince in our Israel has fallen to-day.