"But, passing over a remoter period, have we not to regret that the spirit which then prevailed still continues to manifest itself in our own days? And, indeed, were not the heads of the Protestant establishment the most active opponents of Catholic Emancipation? Who were the great promoters of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill? Was not the head of the Establishment, in this city, most anxious, a few years ago, to put convents and monasteries under police control, and to give every annoyance to the holy and pious virgins who devote themselves to the service of God and the poor? And are not the principles acted on by the Establishment still embodied in Protestant oaths? and can we be surprised that dissensions exist in this country, and that it is reduced to so deplorable a state as it is now in, when we reflect that by such oaths and declarations discord is excited in the country, rulers and subjects placed in a state of hostility, and the people divided into factions and parties?"

As to education, we shall merely observe that the supporters of the Establishment left no means untried to banish it altogether from among the masses of the people in Ireland. Catholic schools were suppressed, and their property confiscated; the erection of new schools prohibited; no Catholic parent allowed to give a Catholic education to his children at home, and he was subjected to the severest penalties if he sent them to foreign schools. What more could be done to suppress the knowledge of the Christian religion by a Julian or a Mahomet? Yet, those who acted in that way cry out that they alone are the friends of progress and enlightenment, and that Catholics seek for nothing but darkness. Was there ever a more decided manifestation of recklessness and hypocrisy?

Having given in detail some other instances of the violent and persecuting measures which were used for the propagation of Protestantism, the Archbishop proceeds to examine the results obtained by them:—

"Let us now ask", says he, "what have been the fruits of so much bigotry, of so much violence, and of so many penal laws? The late census tells us that every effort to introduce Protestantism has been a complete failure, and that notwithstanding so many persecutions and sufferings, the old Catholic faith is still the religion of the land, deeply rooted in the affections of the people. Without entering into details which would occasion too much delay, I shall merely state that all the members of the Establishment in this kingdom are under seven hundred thousand; that out of the two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight parishes into which Ireland is divided, there were, in 1861, one hundred and ninety-nine parishes containing no members of the Establishment, five hundred and seventy-five parishes containing not more than twenty, four hundred and sixteen containing between twenty and fifty, three hundred and forty-nine containing between fifty and one hundred—in all, one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine parishes, each with fewer than one hundred parishioners. I will add that, according to the same census, the parish of St. Peter's, in Dublin, contains more Catholics than the eleven dioceses of Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora, Killala, Achonry, Ossory, Cashel, Emly, Waterford, Lismore, Ross, and Clonfert contain Protestants: and that the Catholics of the diocese of Dublin exceed by thirty-five thousand all the Protestants of the Established Church in twenty-eight dioceses of Ireland; indeed, in all the dioceses of Ireland, excepting those of Armagh, Clogher, Down, and Dublin. Whilst such figures show that all the protection of the State, the persecution of Catholics, the confiscation of their property, the suppression of Catholic schools, the lavish endowment of Protestant schools, and innumerable penal laws, have not been able to establish Protestantism in Ireland, they must convince us at the same time, that it is most unreasonable, and contrary to the interests of the people and to a sound policy, to keep up a vast and expensive ecclesiastical establishment for the sake of so small a minority, and in opposition to the wishes of the great mass of the population".

The Archbishop next quoted several authorities from Protestant writers condemnatory of the Anglican establishment, and among others, that of Lord Brougham, who, confirming his own views by those of the celebrated Edmund Burke, says:

"I well remember a phrase used by one not a foe of Church Establishments—I mean Mr. Burke. 'Don't talk of its being a church! It is a wholesale robbery!'... I have, my lords, heard it called an anomaly, and I say that it is an anomaly of so gross a kind, that it outrages every principle of common sense, and every one endowed with common reason must feel that it is the most gross outrage to that common sense as it is also to justice. Such an establishment, kept up for such a purpose, kept up by such means, and upheld by such a system, is a thing wholly peculiar to Ireland, and could be tolerated nowhere else. That such a system should go on in the nineteenth century; that such a thing should go on while all the arts are in a forward and onward course, while all the sciences are progressing, while all morals and religion too—for, my lords, there never was more of religion and morality than is now presented in all parts of the country,—that this gross abuse, the most outrageous of all, should be allowed to continue, is really astonishing. It cannot be upheld, unless the tide of knowledge shall turn back, unless we return to the state in which things were a couple of centuries ago".

After quoting several other authorities similar to that of Lord Brougham, the Archbishop called on his hearers to unite with him in calling for the abolition of the Establishment.

"When you consider", said he, "the reasons and the weight of authority which I have alleged, I trust you all will admit that an establishment which traces back its origin to the lust, the avarice, and the despotism of Henry VIII. and his daughter; an establishment introduced by force and violence, and that has no support save in the protection of the state, of which it is the creature and the slave; an establishment that has been the persevering enemy of civil and religious liberty; that has called for penal laws in every century from the days of Elizabeth to the passing of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act; that has never failed to oppose every proposal for the relaxation of such laws, not only in the days of Strafford and Clarendon, but even when there was question of emancipation in the midst of the liberality of the present century; an establishment that has inflicted great evils on Ireland by depriving the mass of the people of all the means of education, by persecuting schoolmasters, and seizing on and confiscating schools, and that has been always the fruitful source of dissensions in the country—when you consider all these things, you will undoubtedly agree with me, that such an establishment ought not to be any longer tolerated in this country—that it ought to be disendowed, and its revenues applied to purposes of public utility".

FOOTNOTES:

[24] In the report of the Endowed Schools Commission of 1858, p. 284, there is an excellent letter of Baron Hughes on mixed education. Having observed that in England Protestant bishops and noblemen are opposed to it, he says: "I am convinced that the mixed system is wrong in principle, and cannot, even if right, be carried out in Ireland. I believe that the separate system is sound in principle; and if that is doubted, I think it is worthy of being submitted to a fair trial, as the only alternative the state can adopt".