The Wardenship of Galway

Galway Advertiser, Vol XIIII, 17th August, 1833

It seems strange that, in the Church Reform Bill, no notice has been taken of the Wardenship of Galway. The ecclesiastical situation of this town and neighbourhood all must acknowledge to be peculiarly defective. The Church here is an anomaly : she is not Episcopal ; she is totally unlike any other part of the great community to which she belongs : she differs in organisation and government from every Church on earth — Neither confirmation, consecration, Episcopal jurisdiction, the rights of a Bishop's Court, nor diocesan privileges of any sort can be enjoyed — One grand leading rite of the Church of England is wholly and necessarily cancelled, — a rite which deeply concerns every individual and holds no unessential place in the Book of Common Prayer. The Romish Wardenship deeply felt these disadvantages ; and its priests and people judged them so important as to be removable only by converting the Wardenship into a Bishopric. — But if the evil was so radical a one with them, how much worse is it with the Protestants ? The Romish Warden, if not Bishop within his jurisdiction, was at least an independent authority ; but the Protestant Warden, as every one knows, is either wholly dependent on his Electors, or if he assume a self directly power, is liable to be stript of it at the termination of a year. A better man than Warden Daly cannot fill the office — a better than he cannot be found in the empire ; yet even in his hands, a power so feeble, so uncertain, and so strangely anomalous, can by no possibility sustain such a healthful discipline as is essential to the welfare of the Church and to all the ecclesiastical interests of the Protestant population. So long as Galway remains a Wardenship, the Church government of the town must always be frail and inefficient, and all the interests of Protestantism lag far behind the Church's well being in every other district of the country. No time should be lost in seeking a remedy for so great an evil. Parliament can have overlooked it only through inadvertency and they need only to be reminded of it to take up the matter with vigour. The protestant population ought instantly to represent the case by petition. They are not yet too late. A special bill can be introduced to parliament for the purpose ; and it can provide for the evil, either by investing the Warden with Episcopal power and jurisdiction, making him independent of the Corporation, and appointing him to hold his office for life ; or by annexing the Wardenship to the diocese of Tuam, and permitting the existing state of things to continue only during the life—time of Warden Daly.
The Advertiser.

alike with Whigs and Tories, leaving the controul of the Union in the hands of the most sanguine, the least informed, the most exasperated, and the most violent of its members. Between these and the Council there soon occurred a breach, the former wishing violent and extreme measures to be adopted, for the purpose of creating excitement when none then existed, and the latter judiciously refusing to provoke unnecessary hostility, and wishing to reserve their energies till there was some prospect of using them to advantage. In the meantime the funds of the Union fell short of the expenses, and it was proposed in Council to suspend all proceeding for a few months, and not to incur further expense till the debt be paid off. A public meeting was called, when it was resolved to continue the Meetings of the Union, despite the deficiency of funds. Much censuring was cast on the Council, who, in addition to a great sacrifice of time and labour, had incurred a heavy pecuniary responsibility for the Union. No guarantee or plan to meet the expense of the Union was proposed, whilst other proceedings were taken in disparagement of the discretion of the Council, and even in violation of the laws of the Union. The consequence was, that all the leading members resigned — the Secretary (we believe), by direction of the Council, took measures to sell the property of the Union to liquidate its debts, and the Union was virtually at an end. The violent section which yet remained, as a final act, denounced the Council as hypocrites and supporters of the Whig Ministry, and formed themselves into a new Union, on the most extreme principles, being, in point of fact, merely a political debating Society. Thus ends the National Political Union — and if either Whig or Tory can see anything to congratulate himself upon in this conclusion, we can only congratulate him upon the acuteness of his vision. In the downfall of the Unions we view the destruction of the only power which, in the hour of anticipated disturbance, can prevent or put a stop to violence, and in those who have seceded from these association we behold men who, having found moderate measures of little avail, will in future be prepared to listen only to the counsels of more violent, and, we fear, more revolutionary advisers. —
Observer.