shuffle it away in a pigeon-hole to be thought of some time next year.
We should thus naturally look in the first instance to the public speeches of the Ministers of the Crown. We shall presently find in the recorded debates of 1844, an emphatic and well-considered declaration of opinion from the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, the leader of the House.
It so happened, that in that year, I moved, on February 13, for a Committee of the whole House to consider the state of Ireland. In speaking of the Church, I said:—
For my own part, I do not think you can remove the grievances which now press upon Ireland, unless, on the one hand, by adopting the voluntary principle, or, on the other, by making an Establishment not for one, but for all religions which exist there. With respect to the voluntary principle, I think that it is liable to insuperable objections.
After arguing that point, I said:—
If the voluntary principle were adopted in regard to Ireland, 1 do not see how we could long refuse an enquiry into the number of Dissenters in the United Kingdom, and the utility of the Church Establishment altogether. The system, therefore, which I should be disposed to adopt, would be one which would put the Established Church, as regards the Roman Catholics and Protestants and the Presbyterians of the North of Ireland, on a footing of perfect equality.[1]
I go on to state that I am aware of the difficulties attending the adoption of such a measure, and that, as an earnest of future intentions, I wished to see an improvement in the Ecclesiastical College of May-
- ↑ Hansard, vol. lxxii. Feb. 1844.
