As to the second, all the state aid granted to Catholics is involved in the grant to Maynooth. The Presbyterians have the "Regium Donum", first given by Charles II., who allowed them £600 secret service money. William III. made it £1,200 per annum. In 1752 it amounted to £5,000. To-day it amounts very nearly to £40,000, and is capable of extension on very easy terms.
The funds of the Established Church, in round numbers, may be stated as follows:
| Annual net income of episcopal sees, | £63,000 |
| Revenues of suppressed sees and benefices, now held and administered by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, | 117,000 |
| Tithe rent-charge, payable to Ecclesiastical persons, | 400,000 |
| ________ | |
| £580,000 |
These figures give an inadequate idea of the real riches of the Church. The Dublin University Magazine, quoted by Mr. Cunningham, says:
"We have before us a letter from a dignitary, whose statement is, that his predecessor was twenty years in possession, that he leased severally to one relation after another, as each dropped off, the lands from which came the emoluments of his office; and, finally, to his son, who for twenty years after his death is to hold the land for one-sixth of Griffith's valuation, which, as every one knows, is as a general rule twenty-five per cent. under the rental, with a small renewal fine. So that though this dignitary did not preach in any of his parishes, for he was a pluralist also, for nearly thirty years, and died leaving a very large sum of money, he managed to impoverish his successor for the benefit of his heirs for twenty years after his death. Qualis artifex pereo! must, we should imagine, have been the reflection of this successor of the Apostles, as he lay on his bed of death and reflected complacently on his literal fulfilment of the scriptural mandate, to provide 'for them of his own household', no less than for the interests of 'the Church of God'".
Besides this pilfering on the part of the prelates, we must not forget the enormous sums sent into this country to help the proselytising societies in their work. Let Mr. Cunningham give us a few examples from which we may gain a fair idea of the working of the rest.
"The Hibernian Bible Society, established for diffusing copies of the Scriptures, of course in a Protestant interest, has, since 1806, spent £80,000 in this way, and has given away more than 3,000,000 copies. The Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Home Missionary Society has for its object 'the propagation of the Gospel in Ireland', and employs fifty missionary agents and upwards of fifty circuit preachers. The Hibernian Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society has an income of £137,000,849 missionaries, 1,000 paid, and 15,000 unpaid agents, of whom 25 missionaries, 54 day-school teachers, and 166 Sunday school teachers are employed in Ireland. Besides these there are the Irish Evangelical Society, 'for promoting the Evangelization of Ireland, by the agency of ministers, evangelists, town missionaries, schools, etc.'; the Parochial Visitors' Society, for enabling the clergy near Dublin to 'have the assistance of fit persons to act under their direction in matters which the spirit and constitution of the United Church of England and Ireland allow its clergy to depute to such agents'; the Scripture Readers' Society for Ireland, with sixty-four readers, each with a regular district; the Incorporated Society for promoting English Protestant schools in Ireland; the Islands and Coast Society, 'for promoting the scriptural education of the inhabitants of the islands and coast'; the Irish branch of the Evangelical Alliance, under the presidency of the Earl of Roden; the Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland, which has educated at its model schools in Kildare Street, 43,000 children, trained 3,000 teachers, and issued a million and a half of cheap school books; the Church Education Society, maintained in distinct antagonism to the national system, and to all appearance a very formidable rival; it has fifteen hundred schools in connection with it, and 74,000 children on its rolls, of whom, be it observed, no less than 10,000 are Catholics, receiving 'scriptural instruction' at the hands of Protestant teachers, and consequently the objects of as distinct proselytism as can be well imagined. Then, under the presidency of the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, there is the Ladies' Hibernian Female School Society, for 'combining a scriptural education with instruction in plain needlework'; Gardiner's Charity for apprenticing Protestant boys; the Sunday School Society, with 2,700 schools on its books, 21,000 gratuitous teachers, and 228,000 scholars; the Irish Society for promoting the '[scriptural] education of Irish Roman Catholics'; the Ladies' Irish Association, with a similar object; Morgan's Endowed School, 'for forty boys of respectable Protestant parentage'; Mercer's Endowed School, 'for forty girls of respectable Protestant parentage'; the Protestant Society, with 430 orphans; the Charitable Protestant Orphan Union, for 'orphans who, having had only one Protestant parent, are therefore ineligible for the Protestant Orphan Society'; and last, though not least, on the imposing catalogue, the Society for Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics, and the West Connaught Endowment Fund Society".
In addition, then, to six hundred thousand pounds of public money, all this enormous income is yearly spent to uphold in Ireland the religion of a fraction of the population!
It would take us too far out of our way to follow the author in his investigation of the results obtained by these powerful resources, especially in the west of Ireland. Let it be enough to say that he rejects the current stories about wholesale conversions to Protestantism among the peasants of the West. But we cannot pass over the following remarks made by Mr. Cunningham on the handbill method of controversy adopted by the proselytisers.
"After politely requesting the reader not to 'be offended on receiving this', the handbill goes on to state that the invocations of the Madonna and saints are 'pronounced by the Bible to be the awful sin of idolatry, and that all idolaters have their place in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Do not be hurt', continues this agreeable mentor, 'at this strong statement, but think! is it true?' Do not be hurt! And this, after a summary statement that the religion of three-fourths of the Christian world, the creed of whole generations of the best, purest, and most devoted of mankind, the hope and joy in life and death of millions of humble and faithful saints—is pronounced by the Bible to be punishable with the everlasting torments of hell fire! Verily, if this be the 'spirit and manner' of these 'true Christian pastors', the less we hear of this new Reformation the better!"