It is stated (App. to First Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction, Ire land, 1834) that of the 1387 benefices in Ireland there were 41 which did not con tain any Protestants ; 20 where there were less than or not more than 5; in 23 the number was under 10 ; in 31 under 15 ; in 23 under 20 ; and in 27 benefices the number of Protestants was not above 25. There were 425 benefices in Ireland in which the number of Protestants was below 100. There were 157 benefices in which the incumbent was non-resident, and no service was performed. The num ber of parishes or ecclesiastical districts is 2408, and of this number 2351 a provision for the cure of souls ; total number of benefices is only 1387, as before mentioned, of which 908 are single parishes, and 479 are unions of two or more parishes. Parishes are permanently united by act of Parliament, by act of Council, or by prescription, and they may be temporarily united by the authority of the bishop of the diocese. Latterly, per petual curates, a new order in the Irish Church, have been appointed to a portion of a parish especially allotted to them, the tithe of which they receive and are not subject to the incumbent of the remaining portion of the parish, but hold their situa tions for life.
The episcopal revenues in Ireland are chiefly derived from lands let upon lease for twenty-one years, and renewed from time to time at the original rent, on pay ment of a fine on renewal, which fluc tuates according to the altered value of the land. In 1831 the income of the epis copal establishment was 151,1281. This amount will in the course of a short time be reduced to 82,9531., under the opera tion of the Church Temporalities Act [Bistros; ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION-.
ER81 ; and the surplus of 68,1751. will be applied to the purposes of ecclesiastical discipline and education. Some of the leases belonging to the suppressed sees in Ireland have been converted into perpe tuities by the Irish ecclesiastical commis sioners under the powers of the Church Temporalities Act, and have consequently been in so far alienated. The beneficed clergy derive their income chiefly from tithes, which have been placed on a better footing within the last few years. Glebe houses are attached to 851 benefices. They have been built partly by donations and partly by loans from the Board of First-Fruits, and partly at the cost of the incumbent, repayable by instalments from his successors. The total quantity of glebe-land attached to benefices is 91,137 acres, but it is very irregularly distributed, and the proportion to each benefice is considerably greater in the province of Armagh than in other parts of Ireland. In cities and towns the parochial clergy are paid by an assessment called minister's money, which is levied on every house of a certain value. Some of these par
ticulars are taken from Dr. Phillimore's edition of Burn's ' Ecclesiastical Law.' By Lord Morpeth's (government) introduced in 1836, and which was thrown out on the question of appropriation, as already stated, it was proposed to reduce the number of benefices in Ireland to 1250, and to give each incumbent an average income of 295/., which would have been a higher average income than the incumbents enjoy in England and Wales. A table, which shows the num ber of benefices at different rates of in come, as arranged under the Church Temporalities Act, will be found at p. 353, article BENEFICE. The extensive powers which the Irish ecclesiastical commissioners possess in relation to be nefices are noticed in BENEFICE, p. 353.
The annual revenue of the Established Church in Ireland, during the three years ending 1831, was returned to parliament as follows : Archbishops and bishops . £151,128 Deans and Chapters. . 1,043 Economy estates of cathedrals 11,056 Other subordinate corporations 10,526 Dignities (not episcopal) and prebends without cure of souls . . . . 34,482 Glebe-lands . . 92,000 Carried forward . 300,235 Brought forward . £300,235 Tithes . . . . 555,000 Ministers' money . . . 10,300 £865,535 The incomes of the parochial clergy in Ireland are subject to some deductions, as payments towards diocesan and paro chial schools, repairs of certain parts of churches, and repairs of glebe-houses. Diocesan schools ought to be main tained by annual contributions from the bishop and the beneficed clergy ; but the levy drawn from this source is little more than nominal. The parochial schools are supposed to be maintained by an annual stipend from the incumbent, which is estimated by custom at two pounds per annum : in many cases this has not been paid. (Phillimore's Burn, vol. i. p 415.) The First-Fruits have been abolished by recent acts. They were designed to be the amount of the first year's income of every benefice, which was to be employed in the building and repairing of churches and glebe-houses, and the purchase of glebe-land ; but the assessment was made ou the value of benefices in the reigns of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James I., and yielded only a trifling sum.
In the British colonies the Episcopal Church is not established on an exclusive footing : other churches are supported or aided out of the public funds either fur nished by the colony or the mother coun try. Some of the bishoprics in the colonies have been created by act of parliament, and their incomes are derived from the public revenues; but other colonial bishops are consecrated by the heads of the church, and appointed by them to colonial dio ceses simply with the sanction of the government for the time.