IRELAND, Cnuncit OF, the Irish branch of the Episcopal church of England and Ireland, established by law iu Ireland, according to the net of union passed Jan. 1, 1801. The established church of Ireland, considering itself the rightful successor of the modi feral Roman Catholic church, took possession of the dioceses, parishes, and church property, and for a long time retained the divisions then existing. The Roman Catho lics. constituting a large majority (77 per cent) of the population, have always regarded as unjust the existence, in their country, of an established Protestant church in connec tion with that of England. Notwithstanding its small membership the church had, in 1833, 4 archbishoprics, 18 bishoprics. the income from which was estimated at from £130,000 to £185,000. In that year the first inroad was made upon the prerogatives of the established church in the reduction of the archbishoprics to two and the bishopric's to ten. In 1868, on motion of Mr: Gladstone. the English house of commons voted to dis establish the church of Ireland. The house of lords rejected the proposition. But so strong was the expression of public opinion against the continuance of the privileges of the Irish church that the royal commissioners on the revenues and condition of the church of Ireland, recommended in their report, July 27, 1868, important reductions as to its benefices. They suggested, among other changes, the abolition of four bishoprics and one archbishopric, and that all benefices with Icss than 40 Protestants Atonic] be suppressed. At the close of the year 1868 3l r. Gladstone became prime minister and introduced, in Mar., 1869, a new bill for the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish church, which, after a long and earnest debate, passed both houses of parliament, and on July 26 received the royal.asseut, The bill, containing 60 clauses, is entitled, A bill to put an end to the establishment of the church of Ireland, and to make pro vision in respect to the temporalities thereof, and iu respect to the royal college of May. nooth." The disestablishment was to be total and to take place Jan. 1, 1871, when the ecclesiastical courts and laws were to cease, the bishops to be no longer peers in parlia ment, the ecclesiastical commission terminate, and a new commission of church tempo ralities, composed of ten men, appointed, in which the whole property of the Irish church should be vested. Public endowments, including state grants or revenues (estimated at
£15,500,000), • were to be retained by the state, and private endowments, such as money given from private sources since 1660 (valued at £500,000), were to remain with the discstablished church. The vested interests connected with Maynooth college, with the Presbyterians who were receiving the regiunt donztet, and the incumbents, were to be secured. The aggregate of the payments would amount to about £8,000,000, leaving £7,500,000 at the disposal of parliament, and which should be appropriated "Mainly to the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffering." A general convention held in Dublin, 1870, adopted a constitution for the disestablished church, according to which the church is to he governed by a gen eral synod, composed of a house of bishops and a house of clerical and lay delegates, meeting annually in Dublin. The house of bishops has the right of veto, but seven members must agree upon it to render it valid. The bishops are chosen by the diocesan i convention, but if the convention fail to elect a candidate to a vacant sec by a majority of two-thirds of each order, the election falls to the house of bishops. The primate or archbishop of Armagh is elected by the house of bishops from their own order. The property of the church is vested in a permanent representative body, composed of three classes—the ex-officio archbishop and bishops, one clerical and two lay representatives for each diocese, and the co-opted members chosen by the ex-officio and representative members, and equal in number to the dioceses. One-third of the elected members retire by rotation. The first convention adopted resolutions against the ritualistic prac tices introduced into the church of England. In 1873 the number of benefices was 1548, of ciliates 622. The population connected with the church of Ireland, by the cen sus of 1861, was 393,337 or 11.9 per cent of the whole population; iu 1871, 383,295 or 10 per cent. As soon as the Irish act passed the. temporalities.commission took charge of all the property which had belonged to the established church, and sent out forms to be tilled up by clergymen and others who had claims for a continuance of income. The whole number who had commuted at the end of 1873 was 6,162. The amount paid for claims up to was £8,259,373.