The short-lived ministry of 1835, under Sir Robert Peel, was in office when the appro priation question next came before parliament. The liberals were in opposition; and lord John Russell, who bad succeeded to the Whig leadership in the commons, on lord Althorp's removal to the house of lords, was now prepared to commit his party to the appropriation principle. When Sir Robert Peel brought forward a tithe commutation bill to supplement the bungled measure of 1833, lord John Russell proposed two resolu tions, which gave rise to one of the longest and most important of the numerous debates which have taken place on the question. On the one side the chief speakers were Ward, lord llowick,. Shell, and O'Connell; and on the other. Peel. Stanley, Sir James Graham, and Gladstone. Much of the interest which attended the discussion was caused by its involving the whole question of church establishments, and by a fear, on the part of the English conservatives, that the doctrines of utility and expediency, so freely referred to in connection with the church of Ireland, might one day be turned against the church of England.. On 2d April, 1835, the house of commons pronounced, by a majority of 33, "that any surplus which might remain, after fully providing for the spiritual instruction of the members of the established church of Ireland, ought to be applied to the moral and religious education of all classes, without distinction of religious persua sion;" and a few days afterwards, a subsequent resolution was passed, " That no settle ment of the tithe question would be satisfactory unless it embodied the preceding prin ciple." In consequence of these resolutions, the conservatives. resigned, and the liberals returned to power.
There was now in office a ministry pledged to the appropriation principle. In 183G, ministers brought forward tithe commutation bill, containing clauses carrying out the principle fully and explicitly. The bill passed the commons, but the A. C. were struck out by the lords. The bill was thereupon abandoned. In 1837, it government tithe commutation bill again passed the commons with A. C., and again these clauses were struck out by the lords. On the motion of the ministers, the commons rejected the amended bill. After the general election of 1837, the Melbourne ministry found them selves with a very narrow majority in the commons. The liberal members had made
the appropriation question a prominent topic at the election; but it was too apparent that England and Scotland were becoming weary of the interminable discussions upon Irish affairs. In the meantime, the state of Ireland was little better, and with an increas ing party in the house of commons to back them, there was no prospect of the lords giving way upon the appropriation question. Still, it was necessary that something should be done, and the choice of the ministry lay between carrying a commutation bill without A. C., and resignation. The former course was chosen. The tithe measure was introduced, and ministers. solaced themselves for their desertion of principle by the reflection that after all there might be no surplus to appropriate, and that it would therefore he useless to prolong a collision with the upper house on a matter of no prac tical importance. This conduct emboldened the opposition, and Sir Thomas Acland, on 14th May, 1838, moved the recall of tire celebrated resolutions of 1835. The discus sion which followed was most 'damaging to tire credit of the ministers, but they were saved, by a majority of 19, from the humiliation of having the resolutions recalled. A last effort in support of the principle was made in July, 1838, by Mr. Ward, who then moved the insertion of A. C. into the government tithe bill. He was opposed by the whole ministerial force, and, more strangely still, by the Irish members. O'Connell, who in 1835 had spoken of the one magical word " appropriation," which was to bring peace to Ireland, declared now that nothing would satisfy the Irish people except the total abolition of tithes. Thus deserted and opposed, Mr. Ward's motion was lost by a large majority. The government tithe measure passed in Aug., 1838, and tithes were cOmmuted into a rent-charge of three fourths of their amount. After that, they were collected with comparative facility, and the appropriation question, once the topic of discussion over.the whole country, fell into oblivion, until the disendowment of the Episcopal church in Ireland, in 1869, revived it in a new shape.