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SIN InWglaND, 
 
 ^ mm%m iiusois 
 
 PROTESTANTISM: 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 THE REV. 
 
 ALEXANDER B. WILSON. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 HODGES, SMITH AND CO, 104, GRAFTON STKEET. 
 
 Booksellers to the University. 
 PBICE FOUR PENCE. 
 
I 
 
THE /CONNECTION 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 AND 
 
 PROTESTANTISM ; 
 
 AS TRACED BY MR. DAUNT IN THREE LETTERS IN THE 
 CORK EXAUINEB NEWSPAPER, 
 
 % %uimt 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. ALEXANDER B. WILSON. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 PAROCHIAL SCHOOL HOUSE, BANTRY, FEBRUARY Skd, 1863. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 HODGES, SMITH AND CO., 104, GEAETON-STKEET, 
 
 BOOKSELLEES TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1863. 
 
I 
 
 mi ffi 
 
 CD »- 
 
SIN IN ENSLAND AND PEOTESTANTISM. 
 
 You have all, no doubt, heard of, and some of you have read, 
 three letters that appeared recently in the Cork Examiner 
 Newspaper, addressed by Mr. Daunt of Kilcascan, to Mr. 
 Puxley of Berehaven. 
 
 The contents of these letters (which have attracted consi- 
 derable attention) may have appeared startling to you, as 
 they profess to reveal facts highly damaging to the Protestant 
 religion. Now it is our boast that we fear not the fullest 
 inquiry. We are confident that the most searching investi- 
 gation, so far from overturning our Faith, will do much to con- 
 firm it. We will then boldly and fairly look these disclosures 
 in the face, and see whether they really warrant the unfa- 
 vourable inferences that have been drawn from them. 
 
 We find in Mr. Daunt's letters an appalling picture of the 
 extent to which sin and crime prevail in Great Britain, toge- 
 ther with an assumption of superior morality on the part of 
 Ireland; and a statement that the better condition of the 
 latter country is due to the religion embraced by the majority 
 of its people. All this is put forward for the purpose of 
 shewing that the general distribution of the Bible (such as 
 has been carried into effect in England the land of Bibles") 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 is not an effectual remedy for moral depravity ; but that on 
 the contrary it has a tendency even to increase it. 
 
 Now, in entering upon the consideration of these assertions 
 and conclusions, we may, in the first place observe, that Mr. 
 Daunt's representations respecting the immorality of Great 
 Britain are evidently highly coloured. Those who know 
 England will scarcely recognise it in his description of a king- 
 dom cankered to the core with vice and irrehgion/^ and 
 
 sending up a rank stench of sin and crime to heaven." 
 They will scarcely admit that England has attained to a 
 
 supremacy in wickedness/' and that, together with Scot- 
 land, she is overspread with the gangrene of irreligion and 
 wickedness." 
 
 The statements on which he has based his views on this 
 subject are most of them greatly exaggerated. We know how 
 rashly assertions are often made both in speeches and writ- 
 ings, and even in evidence given before Parliamentary Com- 
 mittees (the sources from which he has derived the testimony 
 he brings forward), and how frequently such assertions re- 
 quired to be modified in order that we may arrive at the exact 
 truth. In fact if we were to accept this kind of testimony as 
 altogether accurate, it could as easily be made available 
 against his position as in favour of it. For if we were to 
 regard all that could be advanced on such authority as 
 unquestionably correct, we would have but little to boast of 
 with respect to our own country, the moral superiority of 
 which he so warmly maintains ; it being obvious that Ave 
 could collect expressions of orators, authors, and witnesses, 
 that paint it in at least as dark colours as those in which 
 England has been depicted. Thus the Saturday Review, an 
 authority quoted by Mr. Daunt, says, with reference to 
 Ireland, in its publication of the 10th of January last, that 
 last year "was a year of bloody and savage murders — of 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 5 
 
 murders perpetrated on principle and system, and notoriously 
 sanctioned by the guilty sympathies of the most numerous 
 class of the population." It pronounces " organized assassi- 
 nation" to be the national crime of Ireland." It asserts that 
 the Irish murders " invariably command the undisguised 
 approval of large masses of the people ;" and observes : — " In 
 Ireland it may be said that there is a public opinion in favour 
 of homicide." It endorses the statement of a Longford witness, 
 that many very decent people in Ireland are fond of mur- 
 derers," It says that in Ireland murder is, as it were, domes- 
 ticated among the people ;" and assumes that there is in this 
 country "a state of popular feeling and opinion which abets, 
 €ncourages5 applauds, and protects crime," It dwells on " the 
 extensive diffusion of so tremendous a heresy as the lawful- 
 ness of assassination and the prevalence of the tenet that 
 murder in cold blood is meritorious." Testimony of this kind 
 would not be of much use in helping forward Mr. Daunt's 
 conclusions. 
 
 He offers us, indeed, in one particular, the additional evi- 
 dence of statistics. He shows that the Workhouses in Ireland 
 contained, in 1852, a far smaller proportion of illegitimate 
 children than did those in England and Wales. But may not 
 this evidence amount to nothing more than, that, owing to the 
 greater prosperity of the latter countries, moral persons and 
 their offspring are not, in them, obliged to enter these houses 
 in such large numbers ? I will, in another part of my lecture, 
 have occasion to bring forward some statistics which lend 
 weight to this explanation of the matter. 
 
 However, after making all reasonable allowance for mis- 
 conception of evidence, and for exaggeration both in the 
 original statements, and in the interpretation given to them 
 by an ardent advocate, there will still remain proof of such 
 sin and crime in England as we cannot contemplate without 
 
6 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 deep concern. The connection between this admitted fact and 
 Mr. Daunt's conclusions we will afterwards consider. 
 
 The next point to which our attention is attracted is the 
 assertion that there is in Ireland a less amount of wickedness 
 than in Great Britain. Now, in proof of this it would not be 
 sufficient to show, supposing that this could be done, that our 
 country is comparatively free from any one particular kind of 
 crime. A certain class of crimes may, owing to various pecu- 
 liar circumstances, be almost unknown in a country; and 
 yet it may, with respect to morals, be, on the whole, in a 
 very unsatisfactory state. There are other sins besides pro- 
 fligacy; and the nation in which they abound cannot be 
 called pure. We expect to find in an upright people, sober- 
 ness, honesty, a due regard for human life, a respect for the 
 laws of the land, truthfulness, a proper appreciation of the 
 sanctity of an oath, and a love of even-handed justice, even 
 where it is opposed to the dictates of party feeling. Perhaps 
 in some of these particulars our own fellow-countrymen might 
 be found wanting.* Your own experience will enable you to 
 form an opinion on this point. Certainly it does not indicate 
 a high national tone with respect to the four last-mentioned 
 qualities that a Dignitary of the Church of the majority should 
 publish an address which palpably sanctions a gross disregard 
 of them. The Venerable Archdeacon Fitzgerald, P. P. of 
 Eathkeale, when a trial was about to take place for an assault 
 committed on, what he would call, a " spiritual poisoner,'' 
 writes respecting such a case :— If I were a Catholic jury- 
 man, I would, without leaving the box, acquit the prisoner, 
 no matter what laws and lawyers may say ; no matter what 
 old gouty judges, with great horse-hair wigs, may have said 
 
 *" The number of murders committed in Ireland in 1837 was 722, 
 making an average of very nearly two per day. Of these, 124 were in the 
 County ofTipperary, which is almost exclusively Roman Catholic." 
 
AND PfJOTESTANTISM. 
 
 7 
 
 on breaclies of the peace, and ail tliat sort of thing."' And so 
 obvious was the bearing of this suggestion that the trial in 
 question was, on the application of the crown solicitor, 
 adjourned to the next assizes. Again, we find that Major- 
 General Bourke, J» P., Limerick, in evidence given before a 
 Committee of the House of Lords — -evidence adduced for 
 another purpose by Mr. Daunt himself, testifies to a " general 
 indisposition on the part of the people to respect the law." And 
 Dr. Leahy, the Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, gives in 
 a pastoral lately issued, a well-authenticated detail of mur- 
 ders, maimings, and other grievous bodily injuries that have 
 occurred in a small district in the County Tipperary during 
 the last six years. Most of these have resulted from so trivial 
 a cause as a dispute about the age of a bull. The rival parties 
 were named three-year-olds, and four-year-olds, respectively. 
 His list is as follows : — 
 
 9th July, 1856. — -Denis Quinlan, a four-year-old, parish 
 of Emiy, killed at the fair of Hospital." 
 
 August, 1856. — John Fitzgerald^ a four-year-old, killed 
 at his own door in Emly.'^ 
 
 "October, 1856.— John Kenna, parish of Emly, killed at 
 Eodus, in same parish. He did not belong to either faction.'' 
 
 " September, 1858.— Michael Hayes, parish of Hospital, a 
 four-year-old, killed at the fair of Hospital.'' 
 
 1859.— James Brown, Knockany, received a stab which 
 put his life in danger.'* 
 
 1859. — At a funeral in Kilteely, John M^Grath of Emly, 
 a four-year-old, badly fractured.'* 
 
 November 6, 1 860.— Eeturning from the fair of Knock- 
 any, Edward Fitzgibbon was killed. It is doubtful whether 
 his death is to be ascribed to faction." 
 
 1860. — One Murphy, a three-year-old^ was killed between 
 Bailylanders and Galbally." 
 
8 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 ''June 12, I860.— At the fair of Ballybrood several per- 
 sons were injured in a faction fight between the Mulcahys 
 and Connollys of Caherline and the Smalls of Kilteely on the 
 one side, and the Lundons and Con ways of Kilteely on the 
 other." 
 
 May, 1861. — At a funeral at Emly, a wicked fight took . 
 place between the three and four-year-olds, for which nine 
 persons from the parish of Emly, and four from the parish of 
 Hospital, were punished by Sergeant Howley at the sessions 
 of Cashel." 
 
 '' 1861.— John Molony, a three-year-old, and Daniel Con- 
 nor, a four-year-old, both of the parish of Emly, began to 
 fight at the chapel-gate on a Sunday, and having retired to a 
 field close by, fought it out during mass, in the presence of 
 several spectators." 
 
 " December, 186L— At a hurling in the parish of Emly,. a 
 man named Taylor was badly fractured ; for which a man 
 named Kennedy was sentenced to three or four jfears' penal 
 servitude." 
 
 " 1861. — A man named Callaghan, not of any party,, 
 returning from the fair of Emly, was killed by a person who 
 did not belong to any party." 
 
 u 1861. — At a hurling in Kilteely, a man named Small 
 was badly fractured by persons of the opposite faction. This 
 occurrence arose out of a faction fight at the fair of Ballybroody 
 in 1860." 
 
 u 1862.— At the fair of Kilteely, Molony, a three-year-old, 
 badly beaten by Conolly, a four-year-old." 
 
 "April, 1862.— At the fair of Ballindreena, parish of 
 Knocklong, Roger Egan was badly fractured by some of the 
 three-year-olds, because he was seen in company with some 
 of the opposite party, though he did not belong to either." 
 
 "August 22, 1862.— Edward Fitzgerald, Hospital, was 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 9 
 
 killed in the same place. This death was not owing to 
 faction." 
 
 " 1862. — Michael Buckley, of Emly, was badly fractured." 
 
 And even with respect to the very sin chiefly charged against 
 England — that of infanticide — I grieve to say that it is by no 
 means unknown in Ireland. Many cases of it have found 
 their way into the newspapers ; and there are many more, we 
 may be sure, that have never done so. If all these could be 
 enumerated, and the number multiplied by four — inasmuch 
 as the inhabitants of Great Britain are about four times more 
 numerous than those of Ireland — perhaps the contrast would 
 not be so very great as Mr. Daunt seems to imagine. 
 
 It should, moreover, be taken into account, that since, as 
 we are told both by reason and by Scripture, men can sin in 
 thought as well as in word and in deed, a very large class of 
 sins is altogether withdrawn from our observation. And 
 respecting the degree in which these may prevail, it is, of 
 course, impossible for us to pronounce. 
 
 But even should it be admitted that there is a considerable 
 difference with respect to morals between the two countries^ 
 and that this is in favour of Ireland, yet Mr. Daunt's con- 
 clusions will by no means necessarily follow. We have still 
 to examine whether, as he assumes, the greater purity of our 
 country is owing to the prevalence in it of the Eoman Catholic 
 religion. 
 
 And in order that this might be satisfactorily shewn, it 
 should be proved to us that no part, or at least but an insig- 
 nificant part, of the crimes of England has been committed by 
 Eoman Catholics. Of this, however, we are offered no 
 evidence ; while, on the other hand, those of us who read the 
 public prints can call to mind some testimony of an opposite 
 character. Thus we cannot forget that Mullins, the murderer 
 of Mrs. Emsley, was a Eoman Catholic and an Irishman. And 
 
10 
 
 SIX IN ENGLAND 
 
 one of the latest capital executions in England was for the 
 murder of a woman more than eighty years of age, committed 
 likewise by an Irish Roman Catholic. 
 
 In support of the theory which credits the Roman Catholic 
 religion with the supposed superior morality of Ireland, there 
 is but one piece of direct evidence supplied us. It is derived 
 from workhouse statistics. These show that in the year 1852 
 there was a far larger proportion of illegitimate children in 
 the workhouses of Protestant Ulster, than in those of the 
 other three provinces. Now, at first sight, this seems a 
 stubborn fact for us to deal with ; but a little investigation 
 will prove that it is not so formidable as it looks. In the 
 first place we should bear in mind that Ulster is by no means 
 an exclusively Protestant province. Slightly more than one- 
 half of its inhabitants are Roman Catholics. Of these, in all 
 probability, a large proportion belongs to the poorer classes. 
 And so it is by no means unlikely that the inmates of the 
 Ulster workhouses are for the most part Roman Catholics. 
 This being the case, the statistics adduced would evidently 
 prove nothing respecting the point in question. 
 
 And again, the mere consideration of these statistics as they 
 lie before us, should lead us to seek some other explanation 
 of the diversity they exhibit, than the prevalence, or other- 
 wise, of the Roman Catholic religion. For we find that the 
 proportion of illegitimate children assigned by them to each 
 province is not at all proportionate to the Roman Catholicism of 
 that province. Thus Leinster is, with respect to the proportion 
 of illegitimate to legitimate children in its workhouses, much 
 more widely distinguished from Munster and Connaught than it 
 is from Ulster ; and yet it is, in point of the Roman Catholicism 
 of its inhabitants, in a very great degree more closely con- 
 nected with the two former than with the latter. These are 
 the respective figures : Connaught has a population of which 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 11 
 
 95 per cent, are Roman Catholics ; and the workhouse sta- 
 tistics assign it — in the particular referred to — a proportion 
 of 1 to 23. Munster is 94 per cent. Eoman Catholic ; and 
 its workhouse proportion is 1 to 21. Leinster is 86 per cent. 
 Eoman Catholic — not very much less than either of the former ; 
 and yet it rises in workhouse statistics to 1 to 11. Ulster is but 
 50 per cent. Roman Catholic (a considerable change from the 
 86 per cent, of Leinster) ; and in workhouse statistics is 1 to 
 7 — in this respect not by any means so much separated from 
 Leinster, as Leinster is from its fellow Roman Catholic pro- 
 vinces, Munster and Connaught. And so it is plain that the 
 degree of illegitimacy in Irish workhouses does not vary in 
 proportion to the Romanism of each province. 
 
 To regard the matter in another point of view : Connaught 
 is, as I have said, 95 per cent. Roman Catholic, and in work- 
 house statistics 1 to 23. And if it be to the slight dimi- 
 nution of Romanism to 86 per cent, in Leinster that we are 
 to ascribe the great increase in its workhouse statistics, i. e. 
 1 to 11 — as it must be if Mr. Daunt's theory hold good — 
 then we should find in Ulster, where Romanism is diminished 
 to 50 per cent., a workhouse proportion of about 1 to 2^; 
 whereas the actual proportion is the very different one of 1 
 to 7. Thus the theory in question, when tried, is found 
 wanting ; and so falls to the ground. 
 
 There is again a very important point with respect to which 
 you may be greatly misled by these statistics. You may 
 imagine, as it is seemingly designed you should, that these 
 prove that there was in 1852 a greater number of illegitimate 
 children in the workhouses of Ulster than in those of either 
 of the other provincies. This I will shew you is very far 
 from being the case. Number and proportion are two differ- 
 ent things; and in the matter before us the former is 
 decidedly in favour of Ulster. According to the workhouse 
 
12 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 returns for the week ending April 24th in the year in ques- 
 tion (1852), the number of children in the workhouses of 
 each province was as follows: Connaught, 12,695 ; Leinster, 
 17,362; Munster, 44,094 ; and Ulster, 8,339. Calculating 
 then in accordance with the statistics that Mr. Daunt has 
 quoted, we find the number of illegitimate children in the 
 workhouses of Connaught to have been 552 ; in those of 
 Leinster, 1,578 ; in those of Mimster 2,099 ; and in those of 
 Ulster, 1,191. So then Ulster, the population of which was 
 by the census of 1851, upwards of 2,000,000, — being con- 
 siderably larger than that of Munster, and than that of Leins- 
 ter, and almost double that of Connaught, had in its work- 
 houses, at the period referred to, but 1,191 illegitimate 
 children ; while Munster, with its smaller population, and 
 94 per cent, of Eoman Catholics, had 2,099 ; that is, nearly 
 twice as many. In place then of Ulster having had the 
 largest number, it had, with the exception of Connaught, the 
 smallest. And should the difference in population be taken 
 into account, even Connaught will be scarcely an exception. 
 Thus Mr. Daunt's statistics, however alarming they may have 
 appeared, have burst harmlessly. 
 
 Their utter impotency will become the more apparent when 
 we proceed to consider in what manner we are to account for 
 the diversity in the four provinces, disclosed by them, wath 
 respect to the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children 
 in the workhouses. I have already suggested that this pro- 
 portion may be but a test of the extent to which legitimate 
 children are kept out of these houses ; and that so we might 
 naturally expect it to vary according to the prosperity or 
 otherwise of the district to which it refers. Now this expla- 
 nation exactly applies in the case of Ulster. "We know that 
 in the year 1852 Ireland was but beginning to recover from 
 the effects of the potato famine : and we are aware that that 
 province suffered much less severely at that period than 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 13 
 
 did Munster, Connaught, and Leinster. On this account the 
 inhabitants of the three latter were in much larger numbers 
 obliged to take refuge in the workhouses ; and so caused the 
 illegitimate, who would naturally be found there, to appear 
 in a smaller proportion. The Poor-law returns for the week 
 ending April 24th, 1852, give us the number of able-bodied 
 men, the bread-winners of the country, in the workhouses of 
 each province. They show that there were 2,023 in Con- 
 naught ; 3,387 in Leinster; 10,646 in Munster ; while in 
 Ulster there were but 725. Or if we take the entire num- 
 ber of inmates, we find that there Avere in Connaught, 26,653 ; 
 in Leinster, 41,752 ; in Munster, 101,040 ; and in Ulster 
 with the largest population, but 17,008. This, I think, 
 satisfactorily accounts for the legitimate children in the work- 
 houses of the latter showing a less proportion. 
 
 There is one more piece of evidence, drawn from statistics, 
 m support of the opinion I have expressed that the proportion 
 m question varies with the degree of prosperity enjoyed by 
 the country, which I will set before you. A considerable 
 improvement has taken place in Ireland since 1852 ; and so 
 likewise is there a very marked change in this proportion. 
 The statistics of that year, as given us by Mr. Daunt, range 
 as you may remember, from 1 to 23 to 1 to 7 ; having an 
 average of 1 to 16.47. Now we learn from the Poor-law 
 Report published last year that for the half year ending 
 March 25, 1861, the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate 
 children in the workhouses of Ireland had become so high as 
 1 to 1.28 (about 11); and for the half year ending Septem- 
 ber 29, 1861, 1 to 1.41 (not quite IJ). How far the several 
 provinces are diiferently affected by these proportions the 
 Keport does not supply us with the means of determining. 
 
 I promised at the commencement of this Lecture that I 
 would bring forward some statistics which would show that 
 
14 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 those adduced by Mr. Daunt do not prove the pre-eminent 
 immorality of England so decisively as he supposes. I have 
 now kept my promise : for the last mentioned proportions- 
 referring to Ireland in the year 1861 — are more unfavourable 
 than those he advances with respect to England ; which are, 
 for England taken by itself, 1 to 1.49 (almost IJ), and for 
 England together with Wales, 1 to 1.46. If then the pro- 
 portions of 1 to 1.28, and 1 to 1.41 do not prevent Ireland 
 from being, as he describes it, " on the whole, bright and 
 pure,'' the smaller— and therefore more favourable— propor- 
 tions I have just mentioned cannot greatly condemn England. 
 Thus Mr. Daunt's evidence has, in this particular, completely 
 broken down. 
 
 So far we have been acting mainly on the defensive. But 
 now we will turn our attention for a little to certain circum- 
 stances which go to prove that Ulster is, not merely not 
 worse, but even better conducted than some of its more Roman 
 Catholic neighbours. It appears, as Mr. Puxley has noticed, 
 that it requires very nearly as many police to keep order m 
 the one county of Tipperary, which is 93| per cent. Roman 
 Catholic, as are necessary for this purpose in five counties of 
 Ulster. The police in Tipperary, according to a late return, 
 number 1,112 ; while those in Antrim, Armagh, Down, 
 Fermanagh and Londonderry, are but three more— 1,115. 
 And this is not to be explained by saying, that, as Tipperary 
 is a large county, it may, perhaps, be nearly as large as the 
 five taken together. They are, in point of fact, more than 
 double its extent ; it being 1,061,731 acres, and they 
 2,682,011 acres. Nor can the excuse be made that it is more 
 populous than they, for Antrim and Down have each a larger 
 population ; and it is, in this particular, far out-numbered by 
 the five taken together. They together amount in population 
 to 1,154,811: while it numbers but 247,426— not quite 
 
AND PEOTESTANTISM. 
 
 15 
 
 quarter as many. Amongst these 247,426 it is found neces- 
 sary that 1,112 police should be stationed: and yet 278 of 
 that force are sufficient amongst Antrim's 376,054 inhabitants 
 — of whom, be it remembered, but 16:^ per cent, are Eoman 
 Catholics ; and 284 preserve the peace in Down, which, being 
 but 33 per cent. Eoman Catholic, has a population of 299,866. 
 You remember too that it was in Tipperary that the murders 
 and maimings detailed by the Eoman Catholic Archbishop 
 of Cashel occurred. 
 
 We can also form some estimate of the relative moral con- 
 dition of the North, and of the South-west of Ireland, from 
 observations lately made, in the discharge of their office, by 
 two Eoman Catholic Judges, 
 
 The Eight Hon. Justice Fitzgerald, in his address to the 
 Grand Jurors of Antrim, said:— A few weeks ago, when I 
 opened the Queen's Commission in the town of Dundalk, I 
 ventured to predict that the state of the county Louth, as 
 e:5^hibited by the calendar, would probably by the state of 
 most counties in the north-east of Ireland. Gentlemen, we 
 have now arrived at the last town of the north-east circuity 
 and in addressing the Grand Jury of the County of Antrim, 
 I am very happy, indeed, to be able to point out to you that 
 that prediction has proved correct. Gentlemen, I have now 
 before me a calendar for the County of Antrim, and for this 
 great community. It is represented altogether by eleven 
 cases. It is true that there are two or three of these of a 
 serious character — that is, of a character demanding on 
 investigation your best attention ; but there is nothing on the 
 face of the calendar at all to create alarm. It does sometimes 
 happen— indeed, it frequently happens— that the calendar is 
 but an uncertain index to the state of the country — I mean in 
 reference to the administration of the criminal law ; but I 
 have before me now another document, which is a very 
 
16 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 elaborate return, prepared by tlie county inspector, stating in 
 detail the circumstances, or a short abstract of the circum 
 stances of each reported outrage or offence since the last 
 assizes ; and I am also enabled from another source to form 
 some opinion of the characters of the cases which came before 
 your very efficient Chairman of Quarter Sessions ; and from 
 the whole of these, and from the inquiries which I have made 
 myself, I believe I may safely address you in accents of con- 
 gratulation. From these docum.ents, as far as I can judge, 
 it appears to me, as I have stated before, that there is nothing 
 to create alarm. No agrarian offence presents itself. There 
 does not appear to be any combination against the law ; no 
 threatening notices, and no offence of that character ; and, on 
 the whole, the law seems to be observed, and to be impar- 
 tially enforced by you. I think, then, I may in justice state 
 that the County of Antrim seems to be in a satisfactory 
 condition.'^ 
 
 Now contrast this very high testimony respecting the 
 North-east of Ireland in general, and the County Antrim in 
 particular, with some remarks made by Judge Keogh in the 
 City of Limerick. When pronouncing sentence of death on 
 the murderer Walsh he said : — " It is a terrible state of things 
 by which we are surrounded. Even whilst I was trying this 
 case yesterday, the bloody arm of the assassin was bared in 
 the neighbourhood of this city. Even whilst I am now 
 speaking perhaps another victim has gone to his account. 
 What a country do we live in ! What a state of things does 
 exist when, as I said, yesterday, in the open day, and in the 
 immediate vicinity of a populous town, a gentleman goes out 
 on his ordinary calling, little conscious that his footsteps are 
 dogged, tracked, and marked by armed assassins." It is no 
 support to Mr. Daunt's argument that the County of Limerick, 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 17 
 
 where these words of earnest and honest indignation were 
 evoked, is nearly 95 per cent. Eoman Catholic. 
 
 It is of course a material point in the present inquiry that 
 we should ascertain to what religion the criminals of Ireland 
 mainly belong. This it is in our power to do ; and here 
 again the result is in favour of Protestantism. The total 
 number of criminals for 1861 was 29,859 ; and of these, 
 25,967 — or, more than 86 per cent, were Eoman Catholics. 
 3,127 were classed as Protestants of the Established Church ; 
 the remaining 765 being Presbyterians. After full allowance 
 is made for the greater proportion of Eoman Catholics in the 
 population, these returns will remain decidedly adverse to 
 Eomanism. The Eoman Catholics of Ireland are to the Pro- 
 testants as a little more than 3|- to 1 ; while the Eoman 
 Catholic criminals are to the Protestant as nearly 6| to 1 : 
 or, in other words, though the Eoman Catholics are not four 
 times more numerous than the Protestants, yet their criminals 
 are much more than six times those of the Protestants. 
 Again, in the year 1860 there were 1,429 juvenile prisoners 
 in Ireland: and of these, 1,297 were Eoman Catholics; 
 making nearly 10 Eoman Catholic juvenile prisoners to 1 
 Protestant. The number of juveniles sent to reformatories 
 that year was 249 ; of whom 223 were Eoman Catholics — 
 nearly 9 Eoman Catholics to 1 Protestant. These facts would 
 lead us to reverse Mr. Daunt's assertion that Eomanism is a 
 better preventive of crime than Protestantism. 
 
 There is, however, no reason why we should confine our 
 inquiries on this subject to Ireland : for, if Eomanism be the 
 cause of the supposed greater purity of Ireland, then we should 
 find similar results attending its prevalence in other countries. 
 That the very opposite is the case is almost too obvious to 
 require proof It is notorious that the tone of morals in the 
 Eoman Catholic countries of Europe is in general low in the 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 extreme. To offer evidence of tliis by extracts from the works 
 of writers of credibility would be to form a volume, and not 
 a lecture. Such testimony is too abundant to make it neces- 
 sary to recount it to those whose reading has been in the 
 least extended. If we but look at France, our nearest Eoman 
 Catholic neighbour, and the country by whose bayonets the Pope 
 is now supported on his throne, we will see enough to convince 
 us that national purity is not secured by Romanism, There 
 the grossest crimes are of daily occurrence. There the most 
 heartless murders are frequently committed ; and so leniently 
 are they looked on, that, except in the most atrocious of 
 them, French juries can discern such mitigating circumstances 
 as secure the life of the murderer. Infamous as are the 
 enormities practised in the dens of London, they are altogether 
 thrown into the shade by the disgraceful orgies of Paris. 
 And so corrupt is the literature of the country that there are 
 but few modern French novels fit to lie upon the tables of an 
 English, or an Irish, drawingroom. 
 
 If statistics respecting the morality — or rather, immorality 
 — of Roman Catholic Eurrope be demanded, I refer you to 
 those brought forward by Mr. Puxley. These show, by the 
 last returns laid before the king of the Belgians, and pub- 
 lished in 18525 that the yearly average of murders in Belgium 
 is 84—18 to every million of the population.* Now the 
 number of persons tried for murder in England and Wales in 
 1861 was but 64 — scarcely more than 3 to the million. 
 Of these 64, 30 were acquitted, and 8 were insane ; so that 
 
 * Mr. Daunt has called the accuracy of this return in question. He 
 does so on the authority of M. Dupectiaux, of Brussels, who professes to 
 quote very different figures from official documents. The Rev. John 
 Thomas Waller having procured these documents, shews, in a letter to the 
 Cork Examiner, that M. Dupectiaux' quotations are altogether incorrect ; 
 the true figures agreeing with those given ahove. 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 19 
 
 only 26 — a little more than 1 to each million of the popu- 
 lation — were found guilty. And the moral superiority of Pro- 
 testant England in this particular will become the more 
 apparent when we pass on to other countries. The Imperial 
 Commission for statistics in Austria, published in 1855, 
 gives the yearly average of murders in that country as 1,325 
 
 being 36 to the million. According to the Governmental 
 
 returns of crime in Bavaria, the number of murders com- 
 mitted there in 1853 was 311 — about 68 to the million. The 
 returns of crime in Tuscany, furnished by the police, for the 
 nine years ending 1838, give 34 murders as the yearly average 
 • — making 50 to each million of the inhabitants. The Papal 
 
 States publish no official returns of crime 
 
 But from the statistical information which Dr. Bowring pro- 
 cured by order of the British Government, for commercial 
 purposes, printed by order of Parliament, the annual average 
 of murders in the Papal States is found to be 339, which 
 gives 113 murders to each million of the population." " In 
 Naples the criminal calendar of one year contains the awful 
 number of 1,045 murders, which makes 174 murders to the 
 million." The criminal returns of France for the year 1853 
 give the annual average of committals for murders there as 
 1^089 — 31 to the million. The statistics of crime in France 
 for 1861 have been lately published. These shew that the 
 number of convicts in that country sentenced to hard labour 
 was 7,660. Of these 1,027 were guilty of murder; 459, of 
 attacks on women; 168, of attempts to assassinate; 162, of 
 wounding and maiming ; and 26 were parricides. In confir- 
 mation of what I have thus advanced in support of the state- 
 ment that, with reference to the crime of murder, England con- 
 trasts most favourably with the Eoman Catholic countries of 
 Europe, I will read for you an extract from a French news- 
 paper, the Galignani : — " A recent statistical table of the com- 
 
20 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 parative number of murders in the diiFerent countries of 
 Europe sliows that in England there are 4 in every million of 
 inhabitants; in Belgium, 17; Sardinia, 20 ; France, 31; 
 Austria, 36; Bavaria, 68; Lombardy, 45; Eome, 100; 
 Sicily, 90 ; and in Naples 200. In the Vaudois Valleys," 
 (which, be it observed, are Protestant) murder is almost 
 unknown." Thus then the statistics of Koman Catholic coun- 
 tries do not support Mr. Daunt's theory. 
 
 But there is another point of view from which we may 
 regard the subject under discussion. We may consider whe- 
 ther Komanism would, from its very constitution, be well 
 adapted to the prevention of vice. 
 
 And when, in entering upon such an inquiry, we direct our 
 attention to the Confessional, it strikes us that, though it may 
 exercise a considerable check on some minds, yet, in the sure 
 and ready absolution which it affords, it would in many 
 instances have a contrary effect. A person who had once got 
 over the sense of shame and mortification that attends the 
 acknowledging of grievous faults to a fellow-man, would find 
 encouragement, while indulging his unlawful passions, in the 
 conviction that he could at any time obtain a certain forgive- 
 
 ness. 
 
 The Confessional is, moreover, an engine which, if intrusted 
 to improper hands, might be worked with the worst results. 
 There are questions allowed to be put in it from which any 
 delicate mind would shrink ; and there are some of these, as 
 we learn from Den's Theology, of which it would be a shame, 
 not only to speak, but even to think. It is thus possible that 
 its influence might be exerted wibh the most corrupting effect. 
 It may be said that the abuse of this institution is no argu- 
 ment against it ; since there is no good thing that may not be 
 abused. This, however, is essentially a power too dangerous 
 to be placed in human hands : and though many instances of 
 its abuse have not come to light in Ireland, it is notorious that 
 
AND PROTEST ANTISM. 
 
 21 
 
 tliey have done so on the Continent, and in Mexico. That 
 it has been thus abused is acknowledged by many Eoman 
 Catholics, and by some Popes in their Bulls. 
 
 The doctrine of Indulgences and Dispensations seems, too, 
 one likely to act as an encouragement to sin ; more especially 
 that branch of the doctrine which prescribes certain prices for 
 which the most heinous sins may be pardoned, or even a con- 
 tinuance in them permitted. The sum of money for w^hich 
 an indulgence may be obtained for each offence is detailed in 
 a work written by Anthony Egane, B. D., formerly Confessor- 
 General of the kingdom of Ireland. I extract a few instances : 
 ^^For the breach of an oath or contract 
 
 respecting civil concerns, .... 
 
 £1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 For murder committed by a Bishop, 
 
 
 
 
 Abbot, Chief of an Order, or Knight, 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 ^' For murder by a Friar, or Guardian of 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 " For the murder of a Priest by aLay- 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 ^'For the murder of a father, mother, 
 
 
 
 
 brother, sister, or wife, each . 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 " For marrying another wife after mur- 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 Where pardon for these — and other no less gross- — descrip- 
 tions of sin may thus be purchased for money, we can scarcely 
 be expected to discern any peculiar efficiency for the preven- 
 tion of vice. 
 
 It is again, a fundamental part of the whole system of 
 Eomanism, that, provided a person duly conforms to certain 
 rites and ceremonies, a life of sin, though it may subject him 
 to terrible sufferings in the supposed region of Purgatory, will 
 not imperil his eternal safety. Now we know that there are 
 multitudes who would, for the sake of a present gratification, 
 
22 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 incur a future and distant penalty ; more especially if tliey 
 were assured that it would be but of temporary duration. 
 And so this view of religion would encourage transgressors in 
 pursuing tlieir guilty course. 
 
 Thus an examination of the nature of Eomanism leads us 
 to infer that no peculiar power of preventing vice can rea- 
 sonably be ascribed to it ; and that consequently we are right 
 in rejecting it as the true and special source of Ireland's mora- 
 lity. Some of its doctrines, as perhaps that of the Confes- 
 sional, may have met in this country with soil favourable to 
 the development of such of their qualities as have a beneficial 
 tendency : but since they have not been similarly fruitful in 
 other regions, it must be to something more immediately con- 
 nected with the locality that we are to attribute what is good 
 in the result. 
 
 This brings us to the conclusion of the first part of Mr. 
 Daunt's line of argument. Eespecting it we have, on the whole, 
 observed :— That he has over-estimated the sinfulness of Eng- 
 land : that the statistics by which he seeks to prove the infe- 
 riority of that country, in a certain particular, to Ireland, will 
 admit of a very different interpretation; and are besides 
 applicable only to a peculiar and exceptional period of the 
 history of the latter — Plater and more normal statistical returns 
 being widely different, and in favour of England: that his 
 comparison of the northern with the other districts of Ireland 
 unfavourable to the former— is based on a similar misinter- 
 pretation of statistics: that reliable returns of a late date 
 betoken a moral superiority on the part of the Protestants of 
 Ireland : that Eomanism cannot be credited with any advan- 
 tage in point of morals which Ireland may possess, since it 
 has not produced any such result in other countries— the 
 Eoman Catholic countries of Europe being more immoral than 
 Protestant England ; and since -we cannot discern in that 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 23 
 
 system of religion any such qiialities as would account for a 
 higher degree of morality than Protestantism would be likely 
 to effect, but on the contrary can perceive much of an oppo- 
 site tendency. 
 
 We now pass on to that portion of Mr. Daunt's argument 
 in which he treats of the connection he would trace between 
 the irreligion that exists in England, and the free circulation 
 of the Bible. 
 
 On this point he makes, as we have already seen, two asser- 
 tions : first, that the general distribution of Bibles is ineffectual 
 for the prevention of sin; and, secondly, that it is even 
 productive of it. These we will consider separately, and in 
 their order. 
 
 With respect to the first, we can have no hesitation about 
 so far agreeing with Mr. Daunt, as to say that the mere circu- 
 lation of the Bible is insufficient for the production of morality. 
 We do not entertain any idolatrous sentiments with regard 
 to that book ; and so do not suppose that it operates after 
 the manner of a charm— we do not think that its mere pre- 
 sence will banish sin. We believe that in order to profit, it 
 must be read. And still further we freely admit that it may 
 be read, and yet do no good. For if we would benefit by it 
 we must attend to what we read. The mere passing of the 
 words that are written through our mouths, or before our 
 eyes, is useless. They may be thus present with us while 
 our thoughts are fixed on totally different objects : and after 
 going over a chapter in this manner, we may be quite unable 
 to give even the most vague account of its contents. We 
 hold that the Bible, in order to be profitable, must not only 
 be read, but read attentively ; with a sincere desire to ascer- 
 tain its meaning, to learn its doctrines, and to apply them 
 practically in our lives. That we may thus make use of it 
 we require, moreover, aid from Him from whom every good 
 
24 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 thing must come — -sucli aid as He has promised to all that ask 
 it, namely, the presence of His Holy Spirit, who will give us 
 grace to attend to the things written, to study them with 
 teachable and unbiassed minds, and to carry into effect the 
 admonitions they contain. Where the Bible is not thus 
 turned to good account, we do not expect that it will over- 
 come sin. 
 
 This admission cannot, however, afford the slightest reason 
 against the general distribution of the Sacred Volume. It is 
 no excuse for withdrawing a powerful means of good from 
 the possession of the people, that many of them will not make 
 use of it, or will not use it aright. The partial want of success 
 with which it may be attended, is no more an argument 
 against the free circulation of the Word of God, than it would 
 be an argument against the establishment of medical dispen- 
 saries throughout the country, that there are multitudes 
 who, either because they will not apply to them at all, or will 
 not use the medicines supplied, and follow the advice of the 
 doctor, derive no benefit from them. 
 
 Mr. Daunt's second assertion on the point now before us, 
 advances from the negative charge against the general reading 
 of the Bible, that it does not prevent sin, to the positive one, 
 that it even produces it. This he accuses it of doing both 
 directly and indirectly. He both says that some persons 
 interpret that book in such a manner as to make it teach 
 what is palpably immoral ; and he likewise argues that the 
 unrestricted reading of it leads to sin, through first leading 
 to infidelity. 
 
 Now it seems to us that the instances must be few in the 
 extreme in which persons have learned immorality from 
 reading the Bible. There are some, but I think not many, 
 who, being already immoral, €eek to defend their misconduct 
 by perverting passages of Scripture. But this, you will observe, 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 25 
 
 is a very diflPerent thing from their learning it from that 
 source. They may fix on passages in which the sins of good 
 men are recorded ; while they will not look at those which 
 show that these sins were regarded by God with heavy dis- 
 pleasure, were punished by Him, and were repented of. 
 They may pretend to think that practices which were allow- 
 able under one dispensation are still so — although they live 
 under another in which they are strictly forbidden. Or they 
 may overlook the peculiar circumstances under which certain 
 acts were either enjoined or tolerated. But if they really 
 read the Bible for the purpose of learning from it, they can- 
 not, unless their minds be of an extraordinarily vitiated 
 character, derive from it anything that is bad. If they read 
 through the later and more complete revelation from God 
 given us in the New Testament, they cannot but be aware 
 that vice is there utterly condemned : and it must be only in 
 case they wish not to learn its contents, that they can per- 
 suade themselves that they see evil permitted in it. How 
 can they pretend that sin is taught in that Book, which so 
 continually inculcates the purest morality ? In it they would 
 find the moral precepts of the previous dispensation summed 
 up in the two unexceptionable injunctions, Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy mind," and " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." In it they are told to Honour all men ; love 
 the brotherhood ; fear God ; honour the king.'' The depraved 
 works of the flesh are there pointed out with condemnation ; 
 namely, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, 
 seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, 
 and such like ;" respecting all of which the Apostle Paul says 
 that ''they which do such things shall not inherit the king- 
 dom of God." Could the silliest imagine that this passage 
 
2g SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 tolerates sin? In the same place the good qualities which 
 belon- to Christianity are set forth: " But the fruit of the 
 Spirit°is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance." It is the morality of the New 
 Testament that says to us, " Love your enemies, do good to 
 them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray 
 for them which despitefully use you." And it also teaches us 
 that we should cleanse the very thoughts of our hearts from 
 everything that is impure. Such is the character of the 
 admonitions with respect to morals that are plentifully to be 
 met with in that book. 
 
 It is then but an infinitessimal portion of the sin of England 
 that can have had its origin in the reading of the Bible: and 
 moreover it is highly improbable that any considerable amount 
 of it pretends to a scriptural sanction. 
 
 Mr Daunt adduces as a case in point, the fact that John 
 Knox, of Scotland, maintained that the Bible commands us 
 to punish with death those guilty of idolatry. It is, however, 
 one thing to advocate a theory from the Bible, and another 
 to derive it thence: and it is plain that the study of that 
 book cannot be regarded as the source of this error, smce 
 the opinion that it was right to visit with the sword and with 
 the stake the holders of wrong views on the subject of reli- 
 gion, largely prevailed at that period, even amongst those 
 who could not be accused of much reading of the Scriptures. 
 
 He notices, too, that such arguments in favour of Mor- 
 monism as professed to be drawn from the Bible were, on a 
 certain occasion, most telling with the audience. But what 
 more does this amount to, than that persons will always 
 attach the greatest importance to what is advanced— or seems 
 to be advanced— on the highest authority? 
 
 He mentions, indeed, the case of an old woman who was 
 led to embrace Mormonism through a wrongly applied quo- 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 27 
 
 tation from Scripture. But here it does not appear that she 
 was so much convinced by the argument, as enticed by the 
 hope that by joining the Mormonite body she would become 
 young again. Neither is it said that she supposed the passage 
 adduced to be itself susceptible of an immoral interpretation : 
 though it was made the means of luring her to accept an 
 immoral system of religion. And all that her case can prove, is 
 — what we scarcely need to have proved — that even the best 
 things may be abused. Some may pervert and wrest the 
 Scriptures to their own destruction ; for God has not thought 
 fit to hedge round any of His gifts in such a manner as to 
 prevent the possibility of their being misapplied. It seems to 
 be His will that all His gifts should require due exertion on 
 our part in order that we may turn them to good account. 
 All of them are liable not only to neglect, but also to misusee 
 Such possibility of misuse gives scope for the trial and exer- 
 cise of our faith, patience, and obedience. 
 
 But that the reading of the Bible may thus be attended 
 with danger, is no reason for even partially closing the book. 
 This is clear from the fact that the Apostle Peter, who points 
 to those that wrest the Scriptures as an example to be avoided^ 
 does not hence direct that the study of these Sacred Writings 
 should be restricted. On the contrary he assumes in his 
 Epistles that the persons to whom he writes are familiar with 
 the contents of the Inspired Volume ; and tells them " as new- 
 born babes to desire the sincere milk of the word." The 
 Apostle Paul too speaks of it as an advantage enjoyed by 
 Timothy, that "/rom a child he had known the holy Scrip- 
 tures." To recur to an illustration already employed, it 
 would be as absurd to check the general distribution of the ' 
 Bible because some — in spite both of the plain purport of its 
 teaching, and of the means provided for their proper guidance 
 —have applied it in a highly objectionable manner; as it 
 
28 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 would be to prohibit the establishment of medical Dispensa- 
 ries throughout the country, because some may — notwith- 
 standing the clearest directions — use in a way that is positively 
 mischievous the medicines thus supplied them. 
 
 The manner in which Mr. Daunt would indirectly connect 
 the general reading of the Bible with the prevalence of sin, is , 
 by maintaining that the former tends to create rehgious sects ; 
 that these lead to infidelity ; and that infidelity produces sin. 
 This is a train of reasoning that suggests many topics for con- 
 sideration, and will require to be investigated at some length. 
 
 And here we will observe, that we are as much opposed to 
 schism as Mr. Daunt is. We see its evil as plainly as he does ; 
 and lament it as sincerely as he can. We know that it is 
 strongly condemned in the Word of God : and we can distin- 
 guish the reasonableness of this condemnation in the injurious 
 results likely to flow from such a source, including those he 
 particularly dwells on — the obstacle thus offered to the spread 
 of the Gospel among the heathen, and also the danger of 
 shallow and conceited thinkers being led thereby to infidelity. 
 Our views on the subject are that such division, if not a duty, 
 is a sin. If we cannot remain in connection with the Church 
 of which we have been members, unless we would profess to 
 believe what we are convinced is false, then separation is a 
 duty ; but under other circumstances it is a sin. This duty 
 was imposed upon our Church at the time of the Eeformation : 
 but it is obvious that no obligation is hence laid upon us to 
 sanction unnecessary divisions. 
 
 In thus stating our conviction that schism is an evil, we do 
 not make any admission to the disadvantage of our own reli- 
 <^ion, or in favour of that of Mr. Daunt. 
 
 If he boasts that the Church of Rome is undivided, while 
 the divisions of the rest of Christendom are manifold ; this is 
 no more than any the most insignificant and impure of Chris- 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 29 
 
 tian sects can do. Any one of them can as well say : — We 
 are one body while those who differ from us are divided into 
 numerous sects/' 
 
 It may indeed be said that the vast majority of Christian 
 sects are sects of Protestantism. Now if the term Protestant 
 be applied to every Christian body that is neither Eoman, 
 Greek, nor Armenian, this assertion is a mere truism — if every 
 body of Christians which is neither the Roman Catholic Church, 
 the Greek, nor the Armenian, is to be called Protestant, 
 there is not much asserted in saying that the majority of sects 
 are Protestant. It should be remembered that of the various 
 bodies which are thus classed under the one denomination 5 
 many differ widely from each other — in some instances more 
 widely than they do from Eomanism. In many most impor- 
 tant particulars the United Church of England and Ireland is 
 totally at variance with the Unitarian body ; and equally is 
 she distinguished from Mormonism. 
 
 But it may be meant, that a body of men, when once sepa- 
 rated from the Church of Eome, splits up into a number of 
 sects — that those who have thrown off the safeguards of that 
 system acquire a tendency to division. So long, however, as 
 these safeguards consist mainly in the prohibition to inquire 
 or judge, it is but a trifling argument in favour of Eomanism, 
 that its adherents are generally disposed to hold together. 
 The assertion that men who will not exercise their thoughts 
 on a certain subject, will not differ respecting it, possesses just 
 as much weight as the equally obvious proposition, that blind 
 men will not be likely to differ about colours. 
 
 Those who are so fond of taunting Protestantism with its 
 sects, seem to assume that Eomanism has had no sects. Now, 
 if the Church of Eome be, in the strict sense of the words, 
 the Catholic Church, it must inclade all such bodies as are 
 
30 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 called Christian, and, consequently, all the sects of Pro- 
 testantism. 
 
 There were, too, numbers of sects which, before the Pro- 
 testant Reformation, emanated from Romanism. As for 
 instance the Paulicians, the Petrobrussians, the Henricians, the 
 followers of Tanquelinus, the Pasaginians, the Caputiati, the 
 Apostolics, the Eonites, the Brethren and Sisters of the Free 
 Spirit, the Quietists, the Flagellants, the Dancers, the Calix- 
 tines, the Taborites, and many more. It may be urged that 
 all these were condemned as they arose, and were in general 
 put down (and we well know by what means it was attempted 
 to put them down.) But this does not prove that Romanism < 
 is a security against the origination of divisions. To borrow 
 au illustration from an admirable and most useful publication , 
 the " Cautions for the Times:" What would be thought if 
 an Englishman were to boast to a Hindoo or Chinese, that 
 London enjoys the happiness of being exempt from all crimes, 
 and also from conflagrations ; and should afterwards explain 
 his meaning to be, that all crimes are forbidden by law ; the 
 person offending being liable when detected and taken up, to 
 be punished as the law directs ; and that though fires do break 
 out from time to time, there are fire-engines ready to be called 
 out on such occasions ?" 
 
 The existence of Protestant sects cannot be brought forward 
 as an argument against the truth of the distinctive doctrines 
 of Protestantism ; for by such a method of reasoning Chris- 
 tianity itself would be proved untrue, since there are so many 
 Christian sects. 
 
 Mr. Daunt accounts for the schism-producing tendency he 
 discerns in Protestantism, by saying that that system leaves 
 every man to pick out his own religion from the Bible. This 
 is certainly not the practice of our Church ; nor, so far as I 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 81 
 
 am aware, is it that of any other. Our Cliurcli Las pro- 
 pounded what she believes to be the doctrines of true religion 
 in her Creeds, her Articles, her Catechism, and her Liturgy. 
 She appoints ministers, whose office it is to instruct the people 
 in those doctrines : and she is careful to require that every 
 infant baptized in her communion shall be brought up in 
 them. At the same time she asks not any one to accept her 
 teaching as true, simply on her own word. She undertakes 
 to prove that it is so : and on all such points as are strictly 
 matters of revelation she refers, as her ultimate standard of 
 appeal, to the Bible. As she professes to teach nothing as 
 revealed truth but what is contained in that book, or may be 
 proved thereby, she has no hesitation in placing it freely in 
 the hands of her people. She encourages all to read it, con- 
 fident that she can show to them, and admitting their right 
 to have it shown to them, that what she expects them to 
 believe is there taught. And she errs not in adopting this 
 course, for she has unquestionable sanction for it. The Jews 
 of Berea, when the Word was preached to them even by the 
 Apostle Paul, " searched the Scriptures" to test the truth of 
 what they heard. And the inspired writer of the Book of 
 the Acts of the Apostles, so far from blaming their conduct, 
 applauds it. " These were more noble than those in Thessa- 
 lonica," he says, in that they received the word with all 
 readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether 
 those things were so." But the issuing of an invitation by 
 our Church to all men, to see for themselves that what she 
 teaches as the Word of God, is really to be found in the In- 
 spired Volume, is a very different thing from her leaving 
 them to search out a religion for themselves in that book. 
 
 We have next to deal with the assertion, that it is the 
 general diffusion of the Bible which has been the source of 
 
32 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 the multiplicity of religious sects in England. In this we are 
 not at all inclined to agree with Mr. Daunt. 
 
 We know, from the number of sects that arose before the 
 Reformation, that there may be schism where the Bible is 
 practically an unknown book. 
 
 And with respect to modern sects, some of them, as the 
 Southcotian, the Swedenborgian, and the Mormonite, are 
 professedly based, as sects, not on the Bible, but on some 
 pretended new revelation — a revelation of such a kind as St. 
 Catherine, and other saints of the Church of Rome are said 
 to have received. 
 
 Another source of schism is ambition. Men have preferred 
 to wield a certain amount of power, and secure a degree of 
 notoriety, as the leaders of a sect, to remaining in — it might 
 be — an obscure position in the Church of which they had 
 been members. For such persons it is not requisite that they 
 should have any doctrinal objections against that Church. 
 
 Many of the separations that have taken place have been 
 on other grounds than points of doctrine. Some have left 
 cur Church on the ground that she is too lax in her require- 
 ments : others, because they consider her too exacting. Some 
 would have her more exclusive in the terms on which she 
 admits members to her community. Some think that admis- 
 sion to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is not sufficiently 
 restricted by her. Many would reform her system of ordi- 
 nation ; although it often happens that they have not in the 
 first place thought it necessary to ascertain what that system 
 is. Some of these would increase the tests she requires of 
 candidates for Holy Orders ; while others would so far abolish 
 them that any person who felt a strong inclination to enter 
 the ministry should be able to do so, no matter how devoid 
 of information, and consequently unqualified for the office, he 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 33 
 
 naiglit be. Her Liturgies, too, have been made a ground of 
 objection. Some, through an unhealthy craving for the 
 excitement of a more emotional system of religion, feel a dis- 
 taste for the earnest sobriety of her services. Others say 
 that the very use of forms is a restraint on devotion. They 
 forget that an extempore prayer is a form to all that hear it. 
 The worshippers can as little depart from it as they can from 
 what they find printed in our Book of Common Prayer. It 
 is a form too that affords them less liberty ; since they cannot 
 — as is manifestly in their power to do in the case of a pub- 
 lished form of prayer — consider it beforehand, and examine 
 whether, or not, they are willing to join in all its petitions. 
 And those who regard the so-called extempore prayer as a 
 spontaneous burst of devotion, and on this ground prize it, 
 are not aware that it usually is (as indeed so solemn an act 
 of worship ought to be) the result of premeditation: fre- 
 quently the very words in which it is to be offered have been 
 prepared beforehand, and have sometimes been even com- 
 mitted to writing. 
 
 For such reasons as these, insufficient as they are, many 
 persons have separated from our communion. And the sects 
 thus formed, having in direct opposition to the teaching of 
 Scripture, accepted and acted upon the theory that mere 
 preference is ground enough for division, have, in the practical 
 development of their own principle, become subdivided into 
 many more. 
 
 When we deduct the schisms that have arisen from all or 
 any of the causes just mentioned, those that remain, as fairly 
 attributable to misinterpretations of the Bible, will not be 
 very many. And consequently the portion of the sin of 
 England which can be traced, through schism, to the general 
 reading of the Scriptures, must be inconsiderable. 
 
 The remaining steps of Mr. Daunt's argument are, that the 
 
 c 
 
34 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 prevalence of sects produces infidelity ; and that infidelity 
 produces sin. Into the consideration of these statements we 
 are under no obligation to enter. For the free circulation of 
 the Bible (the subject with which we are mainly concerned) 
 not being chargeable, as we have just seen, with the mul- 
 tiplicity of religious sects that exists in England— cannot be 
 afiected by any evil consequences that may result from these 
 sects. 
 
 There are however some points, with reference to these 
 last steps of the argument, which it may be well to notice. 
 
 In the first place we readily assent to the statement that 
 sin is nurtured by infidelity. 
 
 And again, we do not question but that some amount of 
 infidelity may have been occasioned by schism. We can 
 easily conceive that a careless person, who is desirous of 
 excusing himself for the neglect of religion, may reason, that 
 amongst the multitude of conflicting sects it is extremely 
 difficult to determine where the truth may lie, and that where 
 such diversity of opinion exists, it is highly probable that all 
 are wrong ; and then may conclude, that he is justified in not 
 believing in any religion. 
 
 We may also observe that schism is not the only source of 
 infidelity. Lord Bacon, as quoted by Mr. Daunt, says that 
 ^' many divisions introduce atheism." But he does not intend 
 to imply that divisions are the only cause of atheism. On 
 turning to the Essay from which the quotation is made, we 
 find, that in specifying four causes he but mentions this as 
 one of them. Now we can distinguish much in the doctrines 
 and practices of the Church of Home that would be likely to 
 produce infideUty. As, for instance, the doctrine which teaches 
 that one and the same body can, at one and the same time, 
 be in a hundred different place?: or again, the system of 
 indulgences; scapulars; masses for brute animals; and foolish 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 35 
 
 stories respecting so-called saints. We cannot wonder that 
 many of those who have been taught that such absurdities 
 are an inseparable part of religion have become infidels. They 
 cannot accept a system, which they believe to be so tied up 
 with the most glaring inconsistencies, that they must stand 
 or fall together. 
 
 We have now investigated the entire of Mr. Daunt's argu- 
 ment ; and may state, as the result of our inquiry, that the 
 sinfulness of England, be it more or less, is not to be attri- 
 buted either to Protestantism in general, or to the unrestricted 
 reading of the Bible in particular, and so cannot fairly be 
 brought forw^ard as an objection against them. 
 
 We may be asked to what we then consider it attributable. 
 I think that, on looking into the circumstances of the people 
 of England, we can perceive a sufficient occasion for it. The 
 population of England and Wales is now double what it was 
 sixty years ago. In 1801 it was 10,000,000; whereas in 
 1861 it had increased to more than 20,000,000. The present 
 rate of increase is between 500 and 600 a day. A conse- 
 quence of this enormous increase of the people is, that the 
 provision made for their religious instruction has become 
 inadequate : the more so since the increase has not been 
 evenly distributed over the entire country. Large numbers 
 have been massed in the great cities : and in the seats of trade 
 and manufacture populous towns have sprung up. Thus 
 multitudes have been brought together in places where the 
 number of clergymen that had been provided was very small. 
 For instance, we find that there are in the city of London six 
 parishes, each of which contains above 100,000 inhabitants. 
 And so it often happens that there is but a single clergyman 
 to labour amongst a population of more than 10,000. Con- 
 siderable efforts are now being made to remedy this deficiency, 
 and we may hope to see it in time removed. When it is so, 
 
36 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 I think we will be able to observe a great diminution in those 
 crimes to which Mr. Daunt has directed our attention. 
 
 That the evil is fully perceived is a hopeful feature in the 
 case. As such it is regarded by the present Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, Lord Carlisle. In a speech lately made by him, 
 he says : — " At no previous period, I believe, in the history 
 of the world, has there been such a fixed desire, and positive 
 determination thoroughly to probe every wound, to bare every 
 latent symptom, to dissect every complication, to throw light 
 on every dark hole and corner, to discover all that is wrong, 
 in order that we may see and know how to do all that is 
 right." When there exists this healthy determination to 
 expose every evil, it will not be difficult for those who are so 
 inclined, to accumulate what they may consider evidence of 
 a general depravity. They are either unwilling or unable to 
 recognise the fact, that the unrelenting disclosure of what is 
 bad argues a much better national feeling, than is evinced by 
 that moral stagnation which silently tolerates it. 
 
 With respect to Scotland ; the painful amount of immorality, 
 which (as Mr. Daunt proves on unimpeachable testimony — 
 the admissions of the Scotch Divines) is there to be met with, 
 may, in some measure, be ascribed to the unsatisfactory state 
 of the marriage laws in that country ; the unseemly modes in 
 which marriage may there be contracted tending to degrade 
 the married state in the popular estimation ; and the uncer- 
 tainty as to what constitutes a valid marriage (even eminent 
 lawyers being unable to agree on this point) being obviously 
 most prejudicial to the existence of a high moral tone amongst 
 the people. 
 
 That Protestantism has not been more successful in check- 
 ing this immorality, may in part be traced to the peculiarities 
 of the particular view of Christianity that almost exclusively 
 prevails in that country. An acute, and even metaphysical 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 37 
 
 analysis of doctrines is, under that system, too apt to be pro- 
 secuted, to the neglect of the proper enforcement of the 
 practical obligations of religion. Where these latter are not 
 sufficiently enforced, we cannot wonder that they should not 
 be duly observed. Practice ought indeed to spring from doc- 
 trine — that is, works from faith : but still, as we learn from 
 the example of our Lord, and of the inspired writers of the 
 Holy Scriptures, it is necessary to set forth frequently and 
 strongly the duty of being " careful to maintain good works." 
 
 In part, again, the continuance of the wide-spread immo- 
 rality testified against Scotland, may be attributed to defects 
 in the prevailing ecclesiastical arrangements of the country ; 
 more especially those which relate to the method of conduct- 
 ing public worship. The services to be used in such worship 
 arii, with the exception of the musical portions of them, in 
 general left to the composition of the officiating ministers. 
 For though John Knox drew up a form of public prayer, 
 yet, as he did not make its use compulsory, it has not been 
 adopted. In carrying out this method, it may readily happen 
 that points of duty, as well as of doctrine, may, either through 
 inadvertence, or from other causes, be habitually omitted, or 
 but slightly noticed by the minister. There are some sins 
 which, from modern notions of refinement, men may be 
 unwilling to mention ; and it is not unlikely that they will, 
 when it is in their power to do so, either pass them over in 
 silence, or but indistinctly allude to them. And when such 
 offences are thus dealt with, the people, not being duly 
 impressed with their enormity, will be the less on their guard 
 against them, and will view them with the less abhorrence. 
 But in our Church, no private feelings of the minister can 
 restrain him from bringing constantly, and in unmistakable 
 terms, before the minds of the congregation, the unlawfulness 
 of every species of depravity ; since, however, he may shrink 
 
38 
 
 SIN IN ENGLAND 
 
 from doing so when in the pulpit, he is left without any choice" 
 in the matter when in the reading-desk and chancel. In this 
 manner the Liturgy will do much to supply the deficiencies 
 of the sermon. In continually praying against the commission 
 of certain sins, we are effectually reminded of their heinous- 
 ness, and so are perpetually warned against them. When we 
 seriously consider this point, we can easily comprehend the 
 disadvantage under which those persons must lie, who do not, 
 even occasionally, participate in such public services as those 
 with which we have been blessed ; or who do not come Avithin 
 the reach of that beneficial influence on the general state of 
 morals which they must diffuse. 
 
 On the whole then we have found nothing in Mr. Daunt's 
 letters which can shake our faith in the doctrines of our reli- 
 gion : but on the contrary, our inquiry has rather had the 
 effect of strengthening it. As we have confidence in our 
 religion, we believe that the results of a fair investigation 
 will ever be in its favour. And so it has proved is this 
 instance. For instead of its appearing, as was asserted, that 
 Protestantism tends to produce crime, we have seen it demon- 
 strated, on the authority of authentic statistics, that it has 
 shown itself a better preventive of crime than Eomanism has 
 been. 
 
 There have indeed been sin and crime on the part of some 
 of those who profess our Faith. But this does not startle us ; 
 for we are well aware that the mere name of Protestantism is 
 not sufficient to secure any from wickedness. Persons may 
 outwardly profess a religion, Avho yet refuse to be influenced 
 by its doctrines. The wickedness of such persons is doubly 
 great; for it has (as the letters we have been considering 
 strongly remind us) the additional guilt of throwing discredit 
 on the Church of which they are unworthy members. 
 
 How watchful then should we be against falling into sin ; 
 
AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 39 
 
 not only on account of its ofFensiveness in the sight of God, 
 but also because of the slur it casts upon the true religion 
 we have embraced, and the hindrance thereby given to its 
 spread amongst those who have not yet accepted it. Let us 
 continually seek the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, that we 
 may eifectually endeavour to follow the great example of Him 
 " who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from 
 all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of good works." 
 
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