exists) but its tendency to promote in that community good order and virtue, religious knowledge and edification. But to accomplish this end in any satisfactory manner, it must be their church, and not merely that of the Government; it should exist for the people, and in the people, and with the people.[1]
Nay, even one of the most distinguished among the authors of the 'Essays on the Irish Church,' holding, as it were, a brief for the Establishment, is so impressed by what he sees around him that he writes thus:—
The Roman Catholic Church, indeed, has inherent political tendencies, which do not coincide with those of English politics; but, even in her case, the evil which results from these in favouring disloyalty and disaffection, is as nothing compared with the good which she does in strengthening the fabric of society by enforcing the obligations of moral duty.[2]
So that, if we could improve and change the current of these political tendencies, we should have the obligations of moral duty enforced among a population of four millions and a half, instead of among seven hundred thousand only, without any admixture of disloyalty and disaffection. Is it not worth while to try the experiment of equality of all religions before we give up the task in despair? Should we not feel a strong sympathy with any religious body in Europe placed in the situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland?
These facts have produced a most unfavourable impression on the minds of the most liberal men—
- ↑ Hallam, Const. Hist. vol. iii. p. 364, 8vo.
- ↑ Essays on the Irish Church, p. 23.
