avoidable inference is, that it is not, and has not been felt as a grievance by the Roman Catholic population. This inference, indeed, has been lately stigmatized as the language of shallow observation; and it has been laid down that it is not always the grievances most felt that are most talked of". But the supposition of a latent grievance in Ireland, the source of all Irish disasters, felt but not talked of, is a reductio ad absurdum of the theory which requires it.

19. The establishment of the Church is sometimes denounced as a burden too great to be borne by so poor a country; but an explanation is seldom attempted of the pecuniary benefit which the country would gain by its abolition. If the present establishment of religion had not been made, the property of the National Church would, like the property of all who engaged in rebellion, have been confiscated on account of the rebellious zeal and activity of the Romish Church. It would in that case probably have gone into the hands of absentee proprietors, and its revenues would be spent in England. But however that might be, there is no doubt that now if the revenues of the Church were secularized, the income would be lost to the Irish people. No minister would propose to hand over to the Irish landlords a property set apart originally for the religious interests of the nation, and on which they have not the slightest claim. The property of the Church would be devoted to some public purpose, connected probably with the moral and intellectual improvement of the Irish people. But do not the patriots who complain of the burden of the Church observe, that this object of public utility, whatever it be, has only to be pointed out, and its necessity made Lord Grey's Speech." Times," March 17, 1866.

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apparent, and it will be carried out at the expense of the imperial exchequer? The appropriation to it of the revenues of the Church would hinder the influx of these imperial grants, and would therefore diminish the income of Ireland by their full amount.

20. It is felt indeed as a grievance that one religious body should enjoy such endowments, while others are left dependent on voluntary support; but establishment does not imply exclusive endowment. Nay, the establishment of the leading religious body needs to be supplemented by the endowment of the others, to make the system complete. To this it is objected that it would involve a monstrous outlay in maintaining the ministrations of religion. But on such a system no more would be spent on religious ministrations than must be spent in any case. Even if the Church were dis-established and placed on the voluntary system, its clergy could not be much reduced in numbers, for there are at present an average of 459 members of the Church scattered over an area of sixteen square miles in each benefice, and they could hardly be ministered to by much fewer clergy than are at present employed. And certainly the income of the clergy could not be diminished below its present amount of £245 on an average to each incumbent. The amount paid to the ministers of the other religious bodies would not exceed what they at present receive. And there would the consequently be no greater burden imposed upon country by the maintenance of the present Established Church and the general endowment of the other religious bodies, than should be borne by it if all were placed on the voluntary system.

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21. Where, then, is the grievance supposed to be in

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Charge of the Archbishop of Armagh, 1864.

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separable from the Irish Establishment? Is it a source of religious animosity on account of the controversial zeal of the established clergy? Their zeal would not be likely to be diminished by their being disestablished, for the voluntary system would give to proselytism the stimulus of pecuniary interest. Is it a source of political discontent because it is inconsistent with the religious condition of Ireland, and therefore with the religious legislation which it would be right for her to adopt as an independent country? No for her upper classes belong to the Church; and while all religious bodies in a nation should be endowed, that to which its leading classes belong should be established.

22. The Irish Establishment is indeed felt as a grievance by those to whom the union with England is a grievance, for it represents that union in Ireland, and diffuses its spirit through the nation. But if the present relative position of Ireland towards England is inevitable, civilization requires that the ideas of the Irish people should be brought into harmony with it; and whatever cements the union most closely is the most powerful civilizing agent.

The process which the modern history of Ireland records is that establishment in the country of the predominant power of a stronger nation, which has taken place in every country in Europe, and founded the greatness of all the European nations. It took place in France, when Germans established themselves in Gaul; and it took place in England when the Normans overpowered the Saxons, and the spirit of chivalry arose out of the union of the Germanic and Celtic minds, and the Normans breathed this spirit into the Saxons; and neither France nor England

could have led the civilization of the world if they had not been regenerated by this violent process. In Ireland this reception of an element of strength and a new principle of life has been protracted by various causes, but the greatness of the Irish people can only begin, as in every other case, when the process is completed, and the new element has completely coalesced with the old. England contributes to Ireland qualities in which the Irish character is deficient, and above all a spirit of independent strength which asserts unfettered freedom in thought and action. This spirit of free development in every department of activity is what characterizes the national life of England; and until this spirit is fully shared by Ireland, it cannot keep pace with England in that course of development which it must follow. The two islands are indissolubly united in national existence, and the only possibility of their vigorous progress is that there shall be har mony in their national tendencies. The violence of lawless conquest works out the great ends of human development, and the intrusion into Ireland of English ambition and cupidity imparted the leading element in Ireland's future civilization. So it must be, for the settlement of the country cannot be changed, preponderance of English influence got rid of; and those who wish for Ireland's greatness must labour to harmonize her civilization with that of England. The spirit of England's civilization is the spirit of the Irish Church. Her religious thought is the religious thought of England, and it is England's orderly liberty she imparts when she teaches England's sober Protestantism. The Irish Church is the stronghold of loyalty to England, and loyalty is the condition of civilization. She propagates the spirit which must be diffused

nor the

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before Ireland is regenerated, and sanctifies with religion the influence of those classes who must lead the development of the nation.

In the performance of this national office she has to encounter the directly opposite influence of the Church of Rome; and that Church breathes a spirit so opposed to the characteristics which distinguish the United Kingdom, that its predominance would be utterly inconsistent with the harmonious development of British civilization. It exacts a servile submission to authority in thought and action, which if it prevailed would check the free progress of discovery, and invention, and improvement, in every region of activity. Its politics form part of its religion, being subservient to the interests of the Papacy, and the tendency of these politics is counter to the natural direction of English policy. Its hierarchy exercise a theocratic sovereignty which exaggerates all the faults of clerical dominion. The clerical mind, occupied as it is with the deduction of religious law from religious principles, and with the application of that law to human life, enforced with the tremendous sanctions of divine justice, tends always to govern life by ideal principles, which it applies as divine ordibut the Church of Rome is not only thus ideal and tyrannical in its rule, but administers that rule by a hierarchy separated from society by enforced celibacy, and bound to her by the most indissoluble ties. Her formidable power is exerted in enforcing a system irreconcileably opposed to the principles of English civilization, governing all the details of life by an ecclesiastical authority that leaves no room for that individual thought from which the progress of this kingdom proceeds. The dis-establishment of the

nances;