Tithe Sale in Carlow.

Our readers are aware that there are in Carlow a large number of the class of religionists denominated Quakers, who are conscientiously opposed to any payment to the ministers of the Established Church, or, indeed, to those of any church. In many instances this is the only point on which the Carlow "Friends" agree with the advocates of the voluntary system and of civil liberty in that celebrated county; for it cannot be denied that they are the most immitigable Tories and the most unrelenting opponents the Liberals have had to contend with.

There is one among that class of the " Friends" in Carlow, whose sex would induce us to refrain from introducing her name into the columns of a public journal, did not the openness of her support of Bruen and the Carlow Orangemen show, that on the score of publicity the lady herself has exhibited no sense of shrinking, and more particularly because her name is connected as defendant in the proceedings which have resulted in the sale, of which a respected correspondent in Carlow has informed us. Miss Lecky, of Kilnock, in the county of Carlow, is a lady possessed of great wealth, and deeply imbued with a hatred of Popery, and a proportionate disrelish for those ministers whom she believes are daily endeavouring to secure its establishment in this country, and is ever ready, by all the means in her power, to use her efforts against the parties who seek the representation of Carlow, and whom she supposes would aid the ministry in the establishment of that creed, of which she most probably knows nothing, unless from the devices of Forger Todd, or the lumbering letters of M'Ghee.

Whenever the county of Carlow is to be contested, the parsons crowd around Miss Lecky- they can scent a monied matron or a dowried Diana as a vulture scents a carrion-they alarm her with ghosts of Popery and mutilations of the Word of God, turning the whites of their eyes upwards at the same time, as if they, pure souls, were elevated in spirit above the things of life, and bent on spiritual matters solely, while the conning rogues are only solicitous for their tithes, and unless in connection with them, care as little for scriptural education as they do for the life of a Papist.

At these times the purse of Miss Lecky is always open, and her contributions to Conservatism are always ample. Great are then the laudations of the parsons, and the praises of the benefactress of the Church are chanted as fervently as the psalms which form a portion of their service. But, alas I though Miss Lecky hates Popery, still she is not a Protestant of the establishment, and though she is ready to spend her money in the hopeless task of forcing Bruen, of "savage" speech making notoriety, upon the electors of Carlow, she eschews as steadfastly the payment of tithes as any Papist in the land. To apostatize the Irish, the parsons are welcome to have her wealth; but as the ministers of a dominant church she will not pay them a maravedi. She is in this particular as unbending as Stephen Fox or William Penn.

But then, surely, such a lady is deserving of the forbearance of the parsons, whose objects she is ready to serve in so many ways, and her tithe rent should be forgiven her in gratitude for her contributions towards the success of the Church in a political way, and her detestation of Popery should cover a multitude of other transgressions. But no, your true parson is always selfish, and whatever bounty is lavished upon him, his cry is still, more, more. No matter how liberal Miss Lecky may be in a thousand ways in which that liberality may serve his prejudices or aid his aggrandisement, the moment she refuses more, she is to be considered as an enemy of the Church, and treated accordingly.

Miss Lecky supports Colonel Bruen and the Church with influence and purse, she is to be lauded to the skies; Miss Lecky refuses to pay the now tithe-rent, and she is to be persecuted to the uttermost. So, at least, says the Rev. F. S. Trench, rector of Kellistown, who has proceeded against Miss Lecky, of Kilnock, to the extremity of the law, and has sold her property under a decree, for the amount of his rent-charge on her land, which her conscience tells her she should refuse. These observations we felt called upon to make upon a case, the facts of which have been communicated to us as follows:-

On Monday last, the town of Carlow was again the scene of a tithe sale, when seven head of cattle, seized under a law process issued at the suit of the Rev. F. S. Trench against Miss Lecky, of Kilnock, for the amount of the tithe-rent due to him off the lands occupied by that lady and her under tenants. The bailiffs, rather dreading the feelings of a Carlow populace towards such a proceeding, were industriously circulating through the crowd a report that the cattle were seized for rent-a sufficient proof that the Tory journals lie when they state that the people are equally opposed to rent and tithes. The cattle were sold off for a sum of £617, the amount of the rent-charge claimed, with costs, was £51 17s.

The purchaser was a gentleman of decided Tory politics, as our informant assures us, a Mr. Wheelan, of the Branch Bank of Ireland in that town. It is said that the cattle were offered to the owner at the price at which they were bought in, but were indignantly refused by her. We trust the lady will evince a proper and a womanly spirit towards the parsons, a member of whose ungrateful body has thus outraged her principles, and that she will cease to support a body so selfish and oppressive. If the tithe sale will have this effect, we shall sincerely thank the Rev. Mr. Trench, who will have done (how unintentionally we shall not say) more to aid the cause of the Liberals in Carlow than could have been effected probably by means more directly suited to the purpose.-Dublin Register.

Source: Australasian Chronicle. Sydney, NSW Tuesday 4 February 1840