Tithe bill after tithe bill had been passed, and all alike had failed.  Mr. Ward had argued for the entire abolition of the tithe system, from the expense and difficulty of collecting tithes, leaving the clergy to be supported by the crown.  A new tithe bill was, however, introduced, by which the clergy should accept something short of what they were entitled to by law.  Not only was the tithing system an apparently inextricable tangle, but there was trouble about the renewal of the Coercion Act.  Lord Grey, wearied with political life, resigned the premiership, and Lord Melbourne succeeded him,—­a statesman who cared next to nothing for reform; not an incapable man, but lazy, genial, and easy, whose watchword was, “Can’t you let it alone?” But he did not long retain office, the king being dissatisfied with his ministers; and Sir Robert Peel, being then at Rome, was sent for to head the new administration in July, 1834.  It may be here remarked that Mr. Gladstone first took office under this government.  Parliament, of course, was dissolved, and a new election took place.  The Whigs lost thereby much of their power, but still were a majority in the House, and the new Tory government found that the Irish difficulties were a very hard nut to crack.

The new Parliament met Feb. 15, 1835; and as the new government came into power by defeating the Whigs on the subject of the Irish Church, it was bound to offer some remedy for the trouble which existed.  Accordingly, Lord Morpeth, the eldest son of the Earl of Carlisle, and closely allied with the Duke of Sutherland and other great families,—­agreeable, kindly, and winning in his manners, and of very respectable abilities,—­on June 26 introduced his Tithe Bill, by which he proposed to convert the tithe itself into a rent-charge, reducing it to a lower amount than the late Whig government had done.  His bill, however, came to nothing, since any appropriation clearly dealing with surplus revenues failed to satisfy the Lords.

Before anything could be done with Ireland, the Peel ministry was dissolved, and the Whigs returned to power, April 18, 1835, with Lord Melbourne again as prime minister.  But the Irish difficulties remained the same, the conservatives refusing to agree to any bill which dealt with any part of the revenues of the State church; and the question was not finally settled for Ireland till after it was settled in England.

Thus the reformed Parliament failed in its attempt to remove the difficulties which attended Irish legislation.  It failed from the obstinacy of the conservatives, among Whigs as well as Tories, to render justice in the matter of rates and tithes,—­the great cause of Irish discontent and violence at that time.  It will be seen that new complications arose with every successive Parliament from that time to this, landlords finding it as difficult to collect their rents as the clergy did their tithes.  And these difficulties appear to be as great to-day as they