TO THE NONCONFORMISTS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ON BEHALF OF YOUR IRISH BRETHREN. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Being a Reprint from /7ish Times, 12th March, 1892 
 5S 5] oO ? 93> 
 OF A LETTER FROM 
 
 REV. WILLIAM CROOK, D.D. (MernHopist MINISTER). 
 
 
 
 
 
 Special attention is drawn to the econeluding clauses of 
 this Letter. 
 
 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE IRISH UNIONIST ALLIANCE 
 DUBLIN :—109 GRAFTON STREET. 
 BELFAST :—1 LOMBARD STREET. 
 
 LONDON :—26 PALACE CHAMBERS, WESTMINSTER. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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 TRS W Fede eS 
 
 HUMPHREY AND ARMOUR 
 PRINTERS, 
 
 CROW STREET, DUBLIN. 
 
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 The Home Rule Bill. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The following letter has been sent to Zhe Methodist Recorder 
 for insertion this week :— 
 
 DEAR Sir,—I have read the leader in your last issue on “ Irish 
 Methodism and Home Rule” with great pleasure, and believe that, 
 however divided the opinion of your readers may be as to the 
 proposed Parliament in Dublin, there can be no second opinion . 
 as to the ground taken in your leader—namely, the bearing of 
 what you so justly call “ An immense legislative proposal” on the 
 interests of the cause of Christ in Ireland. This I feel to be the 
 point of view from which the Methodists of England, and Christian 
 men all over the United Kingdom should consider the proposal. 
 
 J am sorry to learn on the authority of your article,that a con- 
 siderable majority of English Methodists are inclined to look 
 hopefully on the result of a Ministerialsuccess. I was not prepared 
 for this, but, assuming it to be correct, I cannot but think that if 
 they would try to put themselves in our position as a struggling 
 minority, intensely loyal to the British Crown, and intensely hated 
 by a disloyal majority on that ground, and endeavour to look at 
 the question from our point of view, taking into account our 
 superior acquaintance with the tactics of the great foe, and the 
 peculiarities of the battlefield, their views on the subject would 
 right speedily undergo a very great change. On a great legislative 
 proposal which, in the opinion of so intelligent and thoughtful a 
 body as the British Conference, would have a disastrous effect on 
 the interests of the cause of Christ in England, we should, I 
 am sure, in Ireland believe that our brethren in England who had 
 the responsibility before the world of occupying the battlefield in 
 question, and of being actual combatants in the conflict, and not 
 mere spectators, were for that reason in far the best position to. 
 
 form a true view of the gravity of the situation and of the probable 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 en: 
 
 Oo ESAT LASS AMIS PI IE POI TIE SILO TET IE ICO FE TS nn 
 
 4 
 
 bearing of the proposal on the interests of the cause of Christ. I 
 am sure that in the judgment of any one acquainted with the Insh 
 Conference, I do not claim too much for that body when I say 
 that it would be impossible to find a more intelligent, liberal- 
 minded body of men in any Conference on the face of the earth ; 
 and if that Conference has recorded its: deliberate judgment 
 against the proposal of a Parliament in Dublin as being injurious, 
 if not disastrous, to the interests of the cause of Christ in Ireland, 
 English Methodists may well pause, prayerfully pause, before they 
 throw their great influence into the legalising of a measure in direct 
 conflict with the deliberate judgment of their brethren in Ireland. 
 who are not mere spectators but actual combatants in the struggle, 
 and on whom the terrible consequences of the blunder—should it 
 prove a blunder—must inevitably fall, and not on themselves 
 reposing comfortably under the broad shield of the English Con: 
 stitution. Some of my English brethren may say to me as they 
 read this—‘ Do not be afraid. When the crisis comes—if it does 
 come—we will affectionately sympathise with you in your trying 
 position, will remember you in our prayers in public and in 
 private, and do what we can for you.” I reply, the crisis is upon 
 us now; what will come will prove, as we believe, the catastrophe. 
 And what then? What will your affectionate sympathy be worth 
 in the presence of that catastrophe? * How much will it avail to 
 reverse its disastrous consequences to the cause of Christ in this 
 land? 
 
 Amid the present excitement it seems to be forgotten by our 
 
 friends in England that the Act of Union between Great Britain 
 
 and Ireland was a solemn league and covenant between the 
 
 
 
 Irish Parliament, representing the loyal minority of that day, 
 and their children, the loyal minority now in Ireland, and the 
 
 Parliament of England. representing the British Crown—a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 solemn league and covenant duly signed and_ sealed, and 
 
 
 
 understood to be enduring in its integrity as the Throne and 
 nm rr nS TN 
 
 honour of England. That Act of Union made Catholic 
 
 \i 
 

 
 PERETTI UNREST ESSERE 9 6 TaRURE ater ear 
 \ f 
 . \ a 
 
 5 
 
 Emancipation possible in 1829. Catholic Emancipation has made 
 the maintenance of that Act of Union vital to the cause represented 
 by that loyal minority with whom England then entered into 
 solemn covenant. The ground taken in 1829 by those in England 
 and Scotland who advocated Catholic Emancipation against the 
 view of many of the loyal minority in Ireland was, that the Act of 
 Union, to the maintenance of which the honour of England was 
 pledged, placed the interests of the cause represented by that loyal 
 minority beyond the possibility of future danger from any possible 
 results of Catholic Emancipation, as the Act of Union rested on 
 the stability and honour of the British nation. The late Rev. 
 Thomas Waugh, and other members of the Irish Conference of 
 that day, who were opposed to Catholic Emancipation, fearing a 
 crisis such as is upon us now, were met by the statement that the 
 Act of Union was a solemn covenant which the honour of England 
 was pledged to maintain in its integrity; and hence, that the 
 interests of the cause represented by the loyal minority were 
 placed beyond the possibility of future danger. Believing in the 
 honour of England, the Revs. Matthew Tobias, Gideon Ouseley, 
 William Crook, and many other members of the Irish Conference, 
 advocated Catholic Emancipation, and the thought of a betrayal 
 of their confidence by the English nation never crossed their 
 minds. But, alas for the change that has passed over England in 
 connection with the dishonoured name of Liberalism. I hesitate 
 not to say that, if the provisions of that solemn league and covenant 
 then entered into by the British nation with the present loyal 
 minority in Ireland, represented by their fathers in the Irish 
 Parliament, are now treated by England as waste paper, in the 
 face of the solemn protest of that loyal minority, and they are 
 given over by England to the tender mercies of their hereditary 
 foes, it will be an act of national dishonour—nay, perfidy— 
 unexampled in English history or in the history of any country in 
 Europe. 
 
 How will an Irish Parliament affect the cause of Christ in 
 
 Ireland? This question I feel to be one of the gravest possible 
 
 
 

 
 6 
 
 interest to all the friends of Christ in England and Ireland. I 
 would notlattempt to answer it in a hasty way, or without due and 
 solemn thought, looking at all the bearings of the question as 
 calmly and as carefully as I can. I write as a Methodist minister, 
 who may claim to have some knowledge of Ireland and of Irish 
 Romanism, after a lengthened ministry, during which I have been 
 stationed in each of the four Provinces—North, South, East and 
 West; have been repeatedly chairman of the district in these 
 provinces, and have frequently been in every county in Ireland 
 
 without a single exception. I write further as a Liberal who was 
 
 a thorough follower of Mr. Gladstone till he went over to the 
 
 
 
 party so graphically described _by himself as ‘‘ Marching through 
 
 
 
 rapine to the dismemberment of the Empire,” and during my 
 
 
 
 
 
 entire public life have been warmly in favour of the removal of 
 
 
 
 
 
 every real grievance of _which my Roman Catholic fellow- 
 
 
 
 countrymen had cause to complain. To me the proposal of an 
 Trish Parliament is not a question of party, but a question which I 
 look at in its bearing upon the cause of Christ in Ireland, whether 
 introduced by any government—Whig, Tory or Radical. I have 
 looked carefully at the provisions of the Bill as now published for 
 the proposed Parliament in Dublin; and to my mind it is clear as 
 a sunbeam that its proper designation is * A Bill to promote the 
 Ascendency of Popery in Ireland,” placing the loyal minority, who 
 have stood by the Throne and Constitution of Britain, under the 
 feet of their hereditary foes, who hate England and hate them ; which 
 will place the entire political power of the country in the hands of 
 the Romish Priesthood, and what this means may be read by any 
 one in the report of the last elections in Meath—North and South 
 —which will destroy all hope of aggressive mission work in our 
 
 land for our time, if not for allthe coming time, which will re-open 
 
 and intensify the conflict between Catholic and Protestant, and 
 exert a most disastrous influence upon Protestantism all over our 
 land. If you will afford me the opportunity, I will undertake to 
 
 establish these statements beyond the possibility of refutation ; but 
 
 
 
 hy 
 
7 
 
 I have already trespassed sufficiently on your space, and conclude 
 by giving your readers the following extract from Cutholic Progress 
 for June, 1882, a journal well known both here and in England, 
 published by the London Jesuits and edited by the Rev. Albany 
 Christie, S.J., which will open their eyes as to what Protestantism 
 may expect from a Parliament which must be in the nature of 
 things at least three-fourths Roman Catholic—all, or nearly all, the 
 nominees of the priesthood. The following is the statement which 
 
 this journal is not ashamed to publish :—“ The woes of Ireland 
 
 are all ape to one simple cause—the existence of Protestantism in 
 
 Treland. _The remedy could only be found in the removal of that 
 
 
 
 which caused the evil, which still continues. _Why were the Irish 
 
 
 
 not content ? Because being Irish and Catholic, they are governed 
 
 
 
 by_a public opinion which is English and Protestant. Unless 
 
 
 
 Ireland is governed as a Catholic nation, and free scope given to 
 
 
 
 the development of the Catholic Church in Ireland by appro- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 priating _ to_ the Catholic religion the funds given to religion, a 
 
 
 
 recurrence of such events* as are now taking place cannot be 
 = OOOO OO ES OS SSS SS ES aoe EEE 
 
 
 
 prevented. Would that every Protestant meeting-house were 
 
 
 
 
 
 swept from the land, then would Ireland recover _herself, and 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 outrages would be unknown, for there would be no unbelievers 
 
 
 
 with her champions.” If this would not open the eyes of English 
 Methodists and Nonconformists generally they must be given over 
 to strong delusion. 
 
 I am, sir, yours most truly, 
 
 WILLIAM CROOK. 
 
 Wicklow, 1893. 
 
 
 
 * Murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke, May 6th, 1882.