POLITICAL 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 STATE PATRONAGE AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT, 
 
 IN NATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS OF RELIGION, 
 
 NOT ONLY 
 
 INEFFECTIVE, AS A MEANS OF PROPAGATING DIVINE TRUTH, 
 
 BUT 
 
 PERNICIOUS TO THE NATION, AND OBSTRUCTIVE TO THE 
 PROGRESS OF SCRIPTURAL RELIGION: 
 
 ILLUSTRATED IN THE 
 
 POLITICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND EDUCATIONAL 
 
 STATISTICS OF IRELAND, 
 
 LONDON; 
 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO.; 
 
 D. MARPLES & CO., LIVERPOOL ; W. CURRY, JUN., & CO., DUBLIN, 
 
 MDCCCXXXIV. 
 
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“NO — MARBLE AND RECORDING BRASS DECAY, 
 
 And like the graver’s memory pass away; 
 
 The works oe Man inherit, as is just, 
 
 Their author’s frailty, and return to dust: 
 But Truth Divine for ever stands secure; 
 Its head is guarded, as its base is sure. 
 Fixed in the rolling flood of endless years, 
 The pillar of the eternal plan appears; 
 
 The raving storm and dashing wave defies, 
 Built by that Architect that built the skies.” 
 
 D. Marples & Co., Printers, 
 Liverpool. 
 
3U 
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 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. AND HON. THE MEMBERS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE. BRITISH PARLIAMENT, 
 
 ASSEMBLED UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF 
 
 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen, 
 
 As Members of the United Parliament 
 of Great Britain, you sustain an office of vast importance 
 and responsibility. It is expected, in these days, not 
 that you will promote the caprice of a monarch, or the 
 interests of a minister or a party; but that you will 
 diligently seek and serve the welfare of a potent com- 
 monwealth, an extended empire, and a generous people. 
 Your Constituents have sent you to Parliament, not alone 
 to watch that the State shall sustain no injury; but also 
 to investigate and effect such improvements as are re- 
 quired in the condition and relations of all the members 
 the body-politic. The ignorance and errors of former 
 times, the remissness of later ages, and the happy aus- 
 
 403257 
 
IV. 
 
 pices under which you are assembled, have devolved upon 
 you numerous and paramount cares, connected with the 
 difficult subjects now imperatively waiting for considera- 
 tion. There are many able, laborious, and faithful mem- 
 bers in your assembly ; but I shall not offend you if I 
 surmise, that only a few may have fully considered the 
 vital question submitted for discussion in these pages. I 
 conceive that private citizens may both instruct their 
 representatives as to their several political and commer- 
 cial interests ; and, by advising and informing them 
 respectfully, co-operate in consummating the national re- 
 generation, and in establishing the cause of Truth and 
 Justice. 
 
 I do not apprehend that I shall have to maintain my 
 defence, as the author of “ Zion’s Plea” did before an archi- 
 episcopal judge, when he adduced the proof that only five 
 hundred copies of his work were printed, and that beyond 
 seas, while these were intended solely for the Members 
 of Parliament. It will afford me great pleasure to learn 
 that my services have been acceptable; and 1 [shall 
 enjoy unfeigned satisfaction, should it appear that these 
 pages have contributed, through your counsel, even to a 
 limited extent, in advancing the honour of England, the 
 cause of Truth, and the happiness of Mankind. All eyes 
 are upon you. England will be exalted if you do your 
 duty. The influence and benign results of your delibera- 
 tions will be diffused to remote regions — in British Colo- 
 nies, and among Foreign nations: the good you do will 
 live after you; and when you rest from your labours, 
 your w r orks will follow you. 
 
 To you, my Lords and Gentlemen, I dedicate Political 
 Christianity. The enquiry has been to me replete with 
 interest: the momentous and all-absorbing nature of the 
 
V. 
 
 subject, the extreme probability that this Session will not 
 pass without a discussion of the principles involved, and 
 the national agitation which may precede or be excited 
 by your deliberation, have induced me, I hope without pre- 
 sumption, to devote these pages to your service; and to 
 subscribe myself, your obedient, humble servant, 
 
 MEDICUS. EXUL. 
 
 February 7tli , 1834 . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/politica1christi00unse 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Dedication iii. 
 
 Chapter I. The Case stated 1 
 
 . . II. Disputants and Controversy 6 
 
 . . III. Irish Politics 12 
 
 . . IV. The Anglo-Hibernian Church as it has been 26 
 
 . . V. The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland as it is 44 
 
 . . YI. Some Passages in the History of Presbyterianism in 
 
 Ireland 55 
 
 . . VII. Brief Notices of Eminent Persons connected with, or 
 calling themselves, the Independents, or Congregational 
 Churches in Ireland 70 
 
 .. VIII. Short Sketches of other and minor Sects, calling them- 
 selves Christians in Ireland. Thoughts hereby suggested 80 
 . . IX. A Chapter of Conclusions in Tabular form, and for sober 
 
 consideration 94 
 
 .. X. Chaptered Spoliation and National Extravagance, under 
 
 the guise of Educational Zeal 102 
 
 XI. The beginning of a better System 113 
 
 XII. Education conducted by Benevolent Associations for reli- 
 gious purposes. Is Education from Charitable Funds 
 
 calculated to sustain moral character ? 119 
 
 Invocation 135 
 
POLITICAL CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE CASE STATED. 
 
 Public attention has repeatedly been drawn, in recent times, to 
 the controversy maintained between the rival episcopacies — 
 Romish Prelates and Anglican Bishops. “ The Book of the 
 Church,” was intended as a reply to an English Advocate, who 
 stood forth as the champion of Papal Rome. Both productions 
 seemed to engross the conversation of those who waited for some 
 new thing, and whose inclination prevailed to turn them from the 
 consideration of subjects requiring more thought, and involving 
 more practical matter. The labours of the Society assuming the 
 title “ The Reformation Society/’ and managed under the auspi- 
 ces of English Hierarchs, have tended, if they have not also been 
 designed, to perpetuate the contest, and occupy the attention of 
 spectators. The same discussion has been transferred to Irish 
 polemics, in “The Travels of an Irish Gentleman,” and the “ Guide 
 to an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion.” The question 
 is, whether religion, that is, the truth of God, has been the object of 
 search to either : and the strife of both parties may probably be 
 regarded as a carnal contention between a mother and her daugh- 
 ter, which is entitled to be accounted the paramour, and receive 
 the addresses, of a worldly gallant. The elder pleads her purity 
 of blood and unbroken line of ancestry — the pedigree of her 
 family — their parchment deeds, their infallible wisdom, and un- 
 divided authority : while the younger appeals to the beauty of her 
 attire, the grace of her speech, the dignity of her manner, the 
 livery of her servants, and the wealth of her treasures, “the 
 liberty of conscience allowed by the tolerant spirit of the national 
 
 B 
 
9 
 
 faith,”* the comparative ease of her services and requirements, 
 and her lineal descent from the same original stock. We shall 
 not stop to remark how unseemly is altercation between kindred 
 so nearly allied, or to question the gratitude of the daughter, who 
 owes all that she enjoys of property, of honour, or of distinction 
 and power to her despised parent. It might serve a good end, 
 were this a fit place, to give a faithful portrait of each ; were such 
 a graphic delineation set forward in the next academical exhibi- 
 tion, the family likeness would be displayed, and the meed of 
 praise rendered, where age and services have most deserved dis- 
 tinction : but our object is of a more general character — their 
 comparative claims come not within our present discussion — we 
 account them the “ wood, hay, and stubble,” that shall be ‘"tried by 
 fire.” The Church of Rome and the Ecclesiastical Polity hitherto 
 established by law in England are not the world, however secular; 
 they are not the church — an assumption often arrogated ; nor are 
 they the Christian community of Great Britain. It would be of 
 advantage to them both, that is, their adherents, could they silence 
 their jarrings, and hear what others can say for themselves; as 
 well as what is thought of them by others. The choice to be 
 made of public favour depends not on their opinion of themselves, 
 or their vaunted claims. A Latin breviary or an obsolete ritual ; 
 a friar’s hood or a doctor’s scarf ; lawn sleeves or mitred caps, 
 have lost much of their charms in the esteem of the people. It 
 may be that the church of England appeals to the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, and recommends the Canons of the Fathers — that she in- 
 vites her people to judge, but will not suffer them to decide. She 
 is not the church. It may be that the system of Romanism is 
 founded on Papal infallibility, is distinguished by the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation and the worship of the Virgin, and is main- 
 tained by priestly influence; and it may be that Roman Catholics 
 are enjoined to believe not what is merely above reason, but what 
 is palpably opposed to common sense — that the canons and de- 
 cretals are unintelligible to the common people, and contrary one 
 to another, as well as to the revelation of the Divine will. But 
 Popery is only a sect, following the ordinances and traditions of 
 men ; and such are not the questions which we have at this day to 
 decide. 
 
 A change has come over the world — there is a marked pro- 
 
 The words of Dr. Grey, Bishop of Bristol. 
 
3 
 
 gression in the topics of public disputation on ecclesiastical polity ; 
 we have fallen upon days greatly diversified from the times of the 
 fathers of the present generation ; and it behoves us to marshal 
 ourselves in a becoming manner for the combat, seeking that we 
 may not only possess an armoury, but also strength equal to our 
 day. Long after the assent and consent to all things contained in 
 the “ Book of Common Prayer ” were required by act of parliament, 
 the champions of that system continued to boast, with a vain con- 
 fidence, of the immaculate excellency and perfectibility of the law 
 church and its ritual ; while their declared anticipation was, that 
 dissent would prove a passing shadow, a thing of one age ; and 
 that when the race of nonconformists, who were expelled from the 
 church, had been gathered to dust, their principles would descend 
 with them to the grave. The apprehensions of the chief men, 
 however, were subsequently excited by a greater strength and more 
 durable existence being acquired, and accessions of other members 
 being made by dissenting communities ; then the crozier was ex- 
 tended as a pastoral crook, and the voice of the lordly prelate was 
 heard, in accents of expostulation with the wandering sheep, ex- 
 claiming, “ For what, then, are the noble structures in which our 
 forefathers worshipped God, and called down the blessings which 
 have raised our country to the highest eminence — for what are 
 they at any time deserted ? For conventicles, in which the doc- 
 trines and service vary with every new teacher, in which the 
 unprepared rhapsodies of the moment are poured by individuals 
 ignorant of, and despising, the forms in which the church through 
 all ages has offered up its praises and thanksgivings unto God ; or 
 in which the essential doctrines of the gospel are disregarded or 
 disclaimed. I beseech you all to reflect, again and again, how 
 unjustifiable is a separation from an apostolic church, in which no 
 departure from the faith can be proved.” Thus saith the present 
 occupant of the See of Bristol ; and again, as if he found his 
 palace too hot for him ; “ Besides, I wish you to reflect, that the 
 chief concern of all who resort to public worship should be 
 prayer and attention to the scriptures ; and that, if your preachers 
 were indeed superior to ours, as they are, in reality, in all respects 
 unworthy to be compared with them, it would not justify you in 
 withdrawing from the service appointed by public authority, in 
 conformity to the regulations of the primitive church.” 
 
 In later times, and with more thinking people, a conviction has 
 grown up, and acquired an active energy, that some improvement 
 
4 
 
 is necessary ; some other division of ecclesiastical revenue, some 
 modification in liturgical forms, some change in discipline and 
 communion have been proposed, yea urged with vehemence and 
 enforced by argument, by clerical dignitaries and lordly pam- 
 phleteers. In certain high quarters, the admission has been made 
 that something is necessary, and it has been attempted to stay pub- 
 lic clamour by divers proposals — certain small tubs have been cast 
 out to catch the great whale. But all feel that the old fabric is 
 encompassed with danger, and many fear that the most imminent 
 peril lies in the moving of a single fragment, — in the transposition 
 of one mouldering brick or one rotten timber, — from the venerable 
 pile; and those who enjoy clearer powers of discrimination are 
 disposed to leave it as it is, and fix themselves in a situation of less 
 hazard and alarm. 
 
 There are great searchings of heart for the divisions of Reuben ; 
 and his grace of Canterbury charges his clergy, saying, “ in pro- 
 portion to the success of your attention to this important point 
 (the national schools), the course of your ministry will become 
 smooth and easy ; your parishioners, from their infancy initiated in 
 the principles and inured to the practice of pure Christianity, will 
 crowd with pious affection to the altars of their mother church ! ” 
 But there is little of this concern beyond the precincts of their 
 community ; the opponents of the establishment have assumed 
 other ground in the present day, and have brought the question 
 within a narrower compass — they put the issue upon the very ex- 
 istence of an establishment at all. Nor will they admit the evi- 
 dence of parliamentary enactment, or the testimony of early 
 fathers, but What saith the scripture? and What is just and rea- 
 sonable ? Their motto is, “Whatsoever ye would that men should 
 do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the 
 prophets;” and the objects of their enquiry are “whatsoever 
 things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and 
 if there be any praise, they have learned to think on these things.” 
 —Phil. iv. 8. 
 
 In Ireland, the virtuous efficacy of an establishment has been as 
 fairly brought to the test of experience as in any country; and the 
 candid investigator will find the conclusions as palpable as he 
 could desire. Properly speaking, there have been none, at least but 
 few, evangelical dissenters to interfere in the experiment, either to 
 
5 
 
 help or retard the operation. The Presbyterians have had their 
 support on a special compromise of the principle of national 
 establishments, national faith, and national service. Here, too, 
 the very extreme dissentients from the “ Thirty-nine- Articles” and 
 Scottish “ Confession of Faith have participated in the revenues 
 arising from the alliance of church and state. There has been a 
 rich prelatic establishment throughout the country ; and, as a 
 willing handmaid, the Scottish church has chiefly occupied the 
 division of Ulster, and sent out her branches into other provinces. 
 Ireland has therefore been the scene of an experiment, both for 
 riches and poverty, in connexion with national religion. It 
 must interest the political philanthropist, as well as the philoso- 
 phical student of church history, to be able to determine with 
 what success the plan has been pursued, and whether it may serve 
 as a model for other unenlightened regions of the earth. In this 
 country, too, national resources have been profusely lavished, osten- 
 sibly for promoting education and moral improvement; while 
 secular emoluments and literary honours have been almost exclu- 
 sively conferred on the professed conformists with the legalized 
 creed. What profit has there been to the state from all these 
 sectarian privileges ? and what advantage has religion derived from 
 this monopoly ? English Dissenters have declared their grievances, 
 and summed up, among the chief, their liability to the payment of 
 church-rates, and other ecclesiastical demands ; and their exclusion 
 from the privileges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 An illustration of the unmitigated effects of a similar system will be 
 found in Irish history: and to all the wise men of Parliament we 
 would say, “ Judge ye.” 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 DISPUTANTS AND CONTROVERSY. 
 
 These observations may come under the eye of gentlemen re- 
 cently engaged in controversy on the interests of Church of Eng- 
 landism ; I deem it, therefore, expedient to clear my way by a 
 few preliminary remarks. Subsequent statements will come forth 
 less involved in extraneous matter, and it may be that the reader 
 will feel more inclined to pursue the subject. The poet declares, 
 that “ all men think all men mortal but themselves” : perhaps 
 this self-deceiving exclusiveness extends to other things besides 
 mortality. It is, however, notorious, and not more remarkable 
 than foolish in those who are chargeable with the inconsistency, 
 that facts of an unpalatable description, or that would diminish the 
 supposed consequence, or would expose the weakness, of a party 
 are carefully eluded, or shut out from consideration ; so that even 
 writers of that particular connexion appear to be blinded by pre- 
 judice, or destitute of the most accessible information. Thus a 
 wilful and delusive blindness has happened to members or writers 
 of the established church in reference to dissenters. The fact of two 
 thousand pastors being driven from the bosom of the law-church, 
 and forced to become dissenting ministers by the second Charles, 
 is not sufficiently considered. These men were not ill educated, 
 violent, and partizan schismatics, but, for conscience* sake and the 
 fear of God, suffered themselves to be excluded from the sphere of 
 honourable employment and present subsistence ; they carried 
 with them the affection of many of their people ; and though 
 violent persecution still followed them, it was far from shaking 
 the attachment of their flock, or extirpating their sentiments : not 
 more incompressible is water, than is sacred truth : hostile efforts 
 will never extinguish, or alienate from the mind, opinions consci- 
 entiously entertained. The sufferings of the Puritans rendered 
 their cause the more sacred, and their labours the more acceptable 
 among their flock. Parliamentary acts and penal statutes against 
 
7 
 
 attending- conventicles, or to disqualify by civil disabilities the 
 dissentients from legalized episcopacy, were passed in vain. It was 
 a time of suffering to Nonconformists, but it was also a purifying 
 time ; for them, it was a season of opprobrious oppression, but it 
 was also diligently employed in zealous and patient labour. The 
 dissenters of those days were men of exalted and sanctified genius; 
 it was not only that they gathered a sacred halo round their own 
 venerated names, but they diffused a lustre and a glory upon their 
 path, and cast a light on the generation which rose up under their 
 fostering care. Hence an Owen and a Howe, a Baxter and a 
 Flavel, are names which never can be obliterated, but shall abide 
 in everlasting remembrance. Occasional dereliction was exhibited 
 from their principles and example, by the men who professed to 
 receive their instructions, but the succession never failed ; Henry 
 and Doddridge, Calamy and Watts, held forth the light of the 
 sanctuary, and shewed the presence of one like unto the Son of 
 Man in the midst of the golden candlesticks : while the race of 
 worthies now passing, or almost passed, from the church on earth, 
 — the Bogues and Burders, the Waughs and Winters, the Halls 
 and Hills, and many other bright ornaments, — have bequeathed 
 the legacy, intrusted to themselves, to a Raffles and a Jay, aMcAll 
 and Winter Hamilton, a Fletcher and a Bennett, and other labour- 
 ers not less talented or useful, though less known beyond the 
 sphere of their labour. 
 
 The assertion has been made, but it was rash, and without just 
 foundation, that “the meeting-houses, with very few exceptions, 
 founded for the promulgation of the atonement of Christ, have 
 been embezzled by the crafty deceits and juggling sophistry of the 
 Socinian party in England ” ; any approximation to the truth of this 
 statement being only where the principle of an establishment was re- 
 cognized by endowments, or where an abrogation of popular suffrage 
 was effected : — neither is it true that “ a very large proportion 
 of the dissenters of England are for ever denied the opportunity 
 of hearing the saving doctrines of the Bible preached, unless a 
 Christian spirit be awakened in our House of Commons.” 
 Does the writer of such assertions suppose that evangelical dis- 
 senters depend upon parliamentary grants for building churches P 
 He is, then, mistaken indeed. The church accommodation among 
 them in England is very little, if in any degree, less than the 
 parochial edifices, there being nearly 8,000 chapels, besides other 
 preaching places, for dissenters. It would be well for Sir R. IT. 
 
8 
 
 Inglis or Mr. Recorder Shaw to move, in their proper places, for 
 a statistical survey of all Dissenters in Britain, and to have a 
 tabular view thereof exposed in the College Halls of all the 
 Universities, for the information of all Bachelors in Divinity 
 and all embryo Patriots. It will then be known that the Dis- 
 senters of England are neither given over to the heresies of 
 Socinus or of Arius ; nor destitute of comfortable sanctuaries, 
 in which to w r orship the only living and true God. But it may 
 be that we ascribe to ignorance, that which has its origin in 
 obtuseness of intellect ; it is, moreover, possible that the habit of 
 observing objects through a perverted medium produces an 
 obliquity of vision, and a disposition to describe subjects other- 
 wise than according to natural appearances. To what else can 
 we trace the following sentence ; “ As long as parliament deem 
 it prudent to be controlled by the Jacobin spirit (?) of the age, 
 and withhold from the establishment in Ireland the means of 
 enabling the people to encourage their inclination towards her 
 doctrines and government, by the preclusion inflicted on them of 
 participating in her religious services, so long are our senators en- 
 gaged in the unholy occupation of tendering bribes to Protestant 
 dissenters and the disciples of Rome, to make inroads on the 
 church.” I shall not inflict the “ preclusion ” on the English 
 reader of withholding from him the important fact, that this is the 
 language of the Vicar of Bannow, an apologist for the Irish Churchy 
 whom Dr. Elrington, Bishop of Ferns, has thought fit to hold 
 forth as a mighty champion for the episcopal faith and the ecclesi- 
 astical revenues of Ireland. My Lord Mountcashel had the 
 daring to come forward at Cork, and expose certain abuses which 
 he imagined had crept into the law-church, and appealed to the 
 state of that establishment, as set up by his ancestors. The Vicar 
 of Bannow makes a violent attempt to defend his bulwarks against 
 the noble assailant. I shall make no effort to close the breach ; 
 having learned that by putting in a piece of new cloth, there is 
 danger lest the rent should be made worse. But, in this contro- 
 versy, the Vicar made a distinction between the church of Eng- 
 land and the churches planted by the apostles ; “ a more unadul- 
 terated form of church government and of Christian doctrine,” he 
 observes, “ may supplant the establishment of a more corrupt sys- 
 tem, and yet be far removed from perfection.” Can this language 
 refer to the truly apostolic constitution of the English church ? 
 He assured the Lord Mountcashel that he had been betrayed into 
 
9 
 
 a mistake, by limiting his observation to the churches of antiquity 
 planted by the apostles, and corrupted by the hordes of sectaries, 
 which refined away the prominent and leading truths of the gospel. 
 Where else, then, I would ask, are we to discover churches of 
 apostolic constitution, but in the sacred volume P and does the 
 English church correspond with such a model P 
 
 There is a question, which I cannot determine, either to my own 
 satisfaction or I fear to the profit of my reader. I will state the 
 difficulty to which I refer. The language of Primate Stuart, when 
 furnishing to the house of Commons, in the year 1820, a return of 
 the state of the church in this country, is designated the declara- 
 tion of the church in Ireland. He seems to have spoken in the 
 name of the other bishops only. There is no question, seemingly, 
 more inexplicable than this — What is the church P It is not the 
 land — from that are derived the revenues of the church. It is not 
 the people of the land — for in Ireland they generally belong to 
 another body. It is not the communicants at the altar — for they 
 have nothing to do, as such, in determining the laws, appointing 
 officers, or administering the government of the church. It is not 
 the thirty-nine articles, for they are the articles of the church ; and 
 “the church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority 
 in controversies of faith.” It is not the clergy, high or low — for 
 they cannot add to, or take from, the rites, prayers, or ordinances of 
 the church. It surely is not either, or both, houses of parliament, 
 for in them are Independents, Socinians, Roman Catholics, and 
 others ; and yet they possess power to decree laws for the church. 
 Shall we find a solution to the question from the King in council ? 
 No : for the church apologist describes, and the bishop of Ferns 
 approves, that the letter of Primate Stewart, in 1820, was the 
 communication of the Irish church. Thus bishops are spoken of 
 as themselves composing and constituting the church. And yet 
 all that has been done by parliament, or by associations, is as- 
 cribed to the church — that is, to the bishops. Shall we then con- 
 clude, that when the cry is heard, “ the church is in danger,” it is 
 meant that the bishops are exposed to peril, to privations, to oblo- 
 quy, to exclusion from parliament, and to the wakeful and vigilant 
 scrutiny of the people of the land P This may be the right way 
 of determining the matter ; but when I speak of the church, in 
 the subsequent pages, I shall recognize it as the corporation of 
 clergymen of all grades, from the lordly prelate to the aspirant 
 deacon, for whom the laws of former generations, in dark and 
 
10 
 
 and priest-ridden times, imposed exactions on the people ; and for 
 whose support tithes and fees have been extorted by the bayonet 
 and the terrors of confiscation and imprisonment. 
 
 Some writers on this subject may possess more favourable access 
 to the penetralia of the episcopal palaces, and more minute ac- 
 quaintance with the buildings appropriated to ecclesiastical pur- 
 poses — cathedral and parochial edifices, the glebes and parsonages 
 of the English church in Ireland ; may know more of the unions 
 and divisions of unions of parishes, of the characters of bishops 
 and the sons of bishops, of the changes they have effected, and the 
 great good they intend to effect : more of such knowledge may 
 be possessed by some than falls to my lot ; yet perhaps some 
 things may be known also to me, even of this character, which 
 shall be used in proper places. It is my duty, and I feel the in- 
 clination, to contribute to the welfare of the country in which has 
 been my dwelling-place. The time in which we live is eventful, 
 and a crisis for Ireland is not far distant; changes will assuredly 
 come — the waters of the Mississippi could not roll them back, nor 
 the mountainous chain of the Himalaya impede their swelling 
 tide ; far less can the drivelling bigotry of orange factions, the 
 puling fanaticism of Protestant ascendancy, the incendiary ravings 
 of the selfish demagogue, or the midnight plots of the priests of 
 darkness. The shadows of coming times are cast before; and we 
 may discover, not the mechanical and fitful operations of short- 
 sighted and selfish man, whose council is oft times foolishness, and 
 whose politics are distracted by the shifting scenes of antagonist 
 principles; but the mighty movements and glorious progress of the 
 Divine mechanism, exhibited in vision on the banks of the Chebar 
 to the soaring spirit of the Hebrew prophet; “As for their ap- 
 pearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in 
 the midst of a wheel ; when they went, they went upon their four 
 sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the 
 head looked they followed it ; they turned not as they went. And 
 their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their 
 wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, even the 
 wheels that they four had.” Under such auspices, “ when the 
 cheerfulness of the people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only 
 wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare 
 and to bestow upon the most solid and sublime points of contro- 
 versy and new invention, it betokens us not to be degenerated, nor 
 drooping to a fatal decay ; but, casting off the old and wrinkled 
 
11 
 
 skin of corruption, to outlive these pangs, and wax young again, 
 entering the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined 
 to become great and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I 
 see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like 
 a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks. Me- 
 thinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kind- 
 ling her un dazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam ; purging and 
 unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly 
 radiance ; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, 
 with all those that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what 
 she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year 
 of Sects and Schisms.” 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 IRISH POLITICS. 
 
 My station and employments are worthy only of retirement, and 
 may be best filled independent of all political association. As a 
 native of another country, who, after an early education and a 
 residence of several years in England, visited some of the most 
 distant colonial possessions of Britain, where I remained for 
 several years a diligent observer ; and having become subsequently 
 an inhabitant of Ireland during five years, part of which was spent 
 exploring some of its most rude and unlettered districts, as well 
 as the more populous and improved towns and cities ; at the same 
 time holding intimate intercourse with men of one party, while my 
 views and sentiments had a leaning to the claims of the party 
 opposed to them ; a Protestant, but unconnected with the Esta- 
 blishment, or any of the minor divisions which derive the emolu- 
 ments, without suffering the odium, of state connexions; a Secta- 
 rian, but an ardent admirer of real Catholicity; a Liberal, but no 
 O’Connellite ; a conscientious well-wisher of scriptural education, 
 but neither desiring legislative enactments or resources, nor admir- 
 ing the systems which have been in operation ; perhaps I may be 
 entitled, in the reader’s judgment, to have an opinion, and may 
 have been enabled to attain some correct sentiments on the present 
 state of Ireland. I may farther presume to add, that I have 
 mingled with the aristocracy and gentry, the clergy and lawyers of 
 the Protestant persuasion, while occasionally I mixed with mem- 
 bers of the Roman Catholic church, lay and clerical ; and all this 
 has been unaccompanied with any insignia of office, the gold 
 stick, the baton, or the surplice. I have visited many parts of 
 Ireland, and met all classes — on the eve of the elections, while 
 they were going forward, and after they were completed. In the 
 metropolitan province ; in the south, the west, and the north ; 
 both in towns and country parts, I have made observations and 
 received intelligence among priests and people, clergy and laity, 
 electors and non-electors. Under such circumstances, it perhaps 
 
13 
 
 will be admitted that opportunities have been afforded me which 
 ought to have been improved. 
 
 Theories and speculations for Ireland have been numerous 
 enough, surely: political empiricism and profligate ministerial 
 jobbing; hasty measures and dilatory concession ; adherence to 
 party and political consistency; the adventurous speculation of 
 manoeuvring or experimental politicians, exhibiting this country 
 as a tabula rasa, on which school-boy statesmen might learn 
 to blot, rather than the sheet to which the clean transcript 
 should be imparted ; treatment for sores and cutaneous eruptions, 
 rather than remedial measures which should reach the heart, the 
 seat of the disease ; a home and a colonial government for the same 
 people ; a Minister in London, and the King’s representative in 
 Dublin ; Ireland treated as a dependency, rather than as an inte- 
 gral part of the empire ; all these, and a thousand other things, 
 might form the theme of lengthened discussions, independent of 
 that cancerous gangrene — the Protestant church of Ireland, which 
 would be a gnawing sore, a fatal ulcer, in the body politic, under 
 the best, the wisest, and most patriotic government that a good 
 king could constitute. In consequence of her connexion with 
 Scotland and England, discussions on politics and of civil rights 
 are carried further in Ireland than would have been the case had 
 she stood by herself. Then she might have ranked perhaps with 
 Prussia or Saxony. Now she has more than she could have ob- 
 tained by her own efforts, or than, in every sense, she is prepared 
 for. Ireland must not be judged of by England or Scotland. It 
 is not merely that there are here more grounds of complaints ; it 
 is not merely that the people, high or low, are less advanced in 
 general intelligence here than in the other parts of Great Britain. 
 I refer particularly to the gentry, who do not cultivate, but let, the 
 land which themselves hold on lease, to be cultivated by subordi- 
 nate tenants ; it is not merely that this class, who are above abso- 
 lute want or beggary, are but serfs of a higher caste, and deem 
 themselves superior to any manual or generous exertion for their 
 own welfare, and are consequently idle, having no taste for studi- 
 ous reading, are occupied incessantly in trifles, in drink, or in 
 talk ; it is not merely that they are an effervescent, sensitive, and 
 pugnacious people; but too many of them seem insensible to the 
 value of life and the turpitude of assassination, of the moral ac- 
 countability of every man for his own conduct, and the awful 
 judgments of the Supreme Governor: some individuals have 
 
14 
 
 talked to me of way-laying a man as coolly as an Englishman 
 would of ferreting a hare, or a Scotchman of shooting a moorfowl. 
 They seem to have no faith in the ultimate decisions of eternal 
 justice, or the rational liberty of another man to think for himself. 
 My remarks are of course intended generally, and are not of uni- 
 versal application. 
 
 There is comparatively very little improving reading among 
 them. The literature patronized is chiefly that of the diurnal and 
 weekly press ; none can entertain a correet idea, unless they read 
 them, what is the unprofitable character of the periodical publica- 
 tions in Ireland. The work of any size which has the greatest 
 circulation here is Blackwood, of which about eight hundred copies 
 are sent to this country. The Christian Examiner, among Pro- 
 testants exclusively, does not circulate so great a number in Ire- 
 land, though it is published here, discusses local matters, and is 
 the champion of the Church. It is, moreover, taken in, I know, 
 for the sake of the thing, but lies uncut in many places. Three 
 periodicals, of fair literary and moral character, failed during 
 my stay, not being supported; two new ones have recently 
 been commenced, with what success I cannot tell ; they bear the 
 prenomen of University — one monthly, the other quarterly ; the ele- 
 ment in which they live and move will distinguish their character. 
 There are three monthly publications in Ulster — The Orthodox 
 Presbyterian, The Christian Freeman, and The Covenanter, price 
 3d. per number, the first and last, I am told, circulate 4,000 
 monthly. The former, however, it is said, declined in conse- 
 quence of the Editor’s violence against the Rev. James Carlile, 
 and the Education Board. The Dublin Penny Journal professed 
 to sell 20,000 weekly ; and 1 believe the penny publications con- 
 stitute the briskest trade just now — but except in Belfast and a 
 few other towns they are little known ; while their popularity de- 
 pends on their woodcuts, their stories, and their brevity. Fiction 
 is at all times more acceptable to an Irish public than truth ; 
 while the bulk of the community, such at least as are in a menial 
 capacity, would rather deceive than speak the truth, were they 
 even paid for the latter. In the courts for administering law, on 
 receiving evidence, melancholy exhibitions of this feature of cha- 
 racter are proverbially too frequent. 
 
 The High Church, or Church-triumphant Clergy, resort to the 
 London Standard and Morning Post. The Evangelical, or Church- 
 militant Clergy, are satisfied with the Record; while the waiters on 
 
15 
 
 Providence, or Church-expectant Clergy, study the Globe at present 
 for news. The zealous and more pious laity read and dream about 
 the millennium, and the return of the Jews to their own land, and 
 pin their political faith to the London Record . The political Pro- 
 testants commit to memory the Evening Mail , — a paper which 
 panders more to passion than any paper I know, — with now and 
 then a glance at the London Standard , but that is sometimes 
 above them. The reading of the Roman Catholics is chiefly confined 
 to the Diurnal press of their own country and party. The priests, 
 when they resort to a London paper, take in Cobbett or the 'True 
 Sun, but generally they look to the Pilot , the oracle of O’Connell, 
 who is to weather the storm ; this maybe called the evening edition 
 of the Register : the Freeman, also, is a favourite with the Romish 
 Clergy; while the poorer people who can read buy Daniel 
 O’Connell’s speeches, printed and hawked through the streets 
 in half-penny and penny sheets. The Irish are, I think, not a 
 reading or thinking people. They talk too much, are fond of 
 lively sallies, wit, and raillery. They drink, and hunt, and fight. 
 My reader may imagine I am severe, or hasty ; I fear I am not. 
 The transitory excitement which is ever and anon passing over the 
 Irish horizon, when any novelty in theology, any gala day, any 
 public meeting, procession, or dinner are to be observed, and the 
 sudden calm which follows ; the agitation consequent upon O’Con- 
 nell’s freaks, and the silence which reigns when he is out of the 
 way, or pursuing his briefs ; the cruel despotism, the abject thral- 
 dom, in which he holds his many adherents, and the ozier supple, 
 ness with which they bend to his dictates, substantiate my charge ; 
 and I am sorry for it. But what does all this prove ? That the 
 divers parties are not able to tolerate independence in others ; that 
 the landlords are not trained to exercise, or permit the exercise of, 
 judgment or free will in those under them; and this intolerance 
 reaches to every class to whom there are inferiors. Masses then 
 come to act in the same way — the van led on by the priests. The 
 faction, the party, the mob, or the creed, influence individuals as 
 arbitrarily, and to as great risk of property, peace, and life (and 
 even more so), as the most absolute despotism. The aristocracy 
 have the opportunity of making their influence assume the sanction 
 of property, family, and official rank, and so can visit effectually 
 with their displeasure, and its sad accompaniments, individuals who 
 are neither shot nor burned. The parties who have less appear- 
 ance of constituted authority pursue their designs per fas et nefas ; 
 
1G 
 
 if outcry will not answer their purpose, threats are resorted to, 
 and if these succeed not, summary vengeance is perpetrated, in the 
 murder of the man who dared to think for himself in despite of 
 these adverse opinions. There must be some protection against 
 such influence and domination, before the country can improve or 
 become settled. 
 
 When any attempt to shake off this vassalage has been made, 
 vexatious, rancorous, and persecuting hostility have followed. I 
 am able to speak to the following circumstance from my own 
 observation. In a mail coach, not far from Galway, I was travel- 
 ling; by the same coach there were two priests, passengers. A 
 respectable woman, the wife of a farmer, a Roman Catholic, was in 
 the coach. A late election was the topic. She said she knew 
 many who had not slept in their own houses since the election 
 from fear, nor did they dare to do it; they had voted for the 
 Browns. Pointing to one of the priests, she said — “ That is 
 Father James (it was a priest, whose name is notorious) ; if he 
 were to meet me or any of my family in distress, he would not 
 acknowledge me, nor help us, though he has been as intimate in 
 our house as one of ourselves, and welcomed to a share of whatever 
 we had, before the election.” “ And what has caused the change?” 
 said I. She replied — “ Just because my husband gave his vote 
 for Mr. Brown, his landlord.” She then described Mr. Brown, 
 and spoke much in his praise. She also seemed to think highly 
 of Sir W. Brabazon. It is a sober question, and of grave import- 
 ance, What protection can these poor people have from such 
 oppressors, on one side or the other, — from O’Connellism, priestly 
 politics, or mob ascendancy ? A generous mind can have no 
 sympathy but with liberty, and that to be enjoyed by all : he can 
 have no desire but to see every man have an opinion, and be free 
 to express it, without any injurious or impeding bias; and to 
 behold his fellow men secure in the testimony of a good con- 
 science, and in the peace and comforts of their domestic hearths. 
 
 In a healthful state of society, a virtuous man will find no diffi- 
 culty in declaring his sentiments, or in giving effect to his opinions, 
 not merely on abstract rights, but on disputed local and relative 
 interests ; and even in an unsettled and troubled condition of 
 things, a patriotic and good citizen will not decline, although 
 at personal hazard, to avow his judgment of debated matters, and 
 give, by his decided firmness and consistency, an example to 
 others who may incline to follow the wise and good. But no man 
 
17 
 
 should be driven to this risk or danger, or forced to deny himself 
 civil rights, because his opinions come in collison with the rich or 
 the many. The practice of public voting incurs this risk in 
 keenly contested elections. Hence we witness the personal ani- 
 mosity towards opponents, and the sullen revenge, which is not 
 only threatened, but inflicted, in a community formed of materials 
 so selfish, short-sighted, prejudiced, and interested, as mankind 
 are generally. It is not easy, in any country, to find or produce a 
 healthy order of things, where party jarrings and hostile encounters 
 shall not be countenanced ; but in Ireland, there is not even a 
 section of the country, where the people constitute a well regulated 
 society. Here and there only will be found persons of sober 
 mind and enlightened purpose ; but generally the inhabitants are 
 blinded by the jaundice of conservatism, maddened by popular 
 excitement, paralysed by priestly influence, or swayed by aristo- 
 cratic authority. The country seems to resemble a great cauldron^ 
 whose restless elements are, like the troubled sea, constantly casting 
 up mire and dirt — 
 
 Boiling and bubbling, 
 
 Toiling and troubling. 
 
 This is a people more accessible, far, to passion than to princi- 
 ple — over whom the sense of moral justice sways but a feeble 
 power ; to be repressed by fear — the fear of physical coercion and 
 superiority, or of superstitious dogmas and priestly domination; or 
 to be stimulated by present indulgence — the indulgence of revenge, 
 or of fun and drollery ; but not to be guided by the anticipation of 
 consequences, or by calculating the justice or benevolence of any 
 proceeding. The peasantry of this land are misrepresented, when 
 spoken of as a brave people, or fitted to endure conflict and disap- 
 pointment with resolution and stedfastness ; they are neither 
 brave nor resolute. I speak of them as peasantry, not as soldiers 
 of the line ; they possess neither the moral or mental resources for 
 such virtues. They exhibit the character and state of their minds 
 by resorting to the excitement of spirituous draughts previous to 
 entering upon any deed of cruelty — by attacking the victims of 
 their passion, women and helpless children, during the darkness 
 of night — by assembling in myriads where a solitary sufferer or 
 an isolated family are to be sacrificed. The fact that twenty of 
 them will attack one antagonist, and beat him with clubs, not till 
 he is down merely, but long afterwards, — and this occurs almost 
 at every country fair or market ; while twenty well-trained and 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 determined soldiers or police will hold thousands of them at bay 
 in open field, and put them to flight, or take their ringleaders as 
 prisoners, does not say much for the bravery of the Irish peasantry. 
 Every civil commotion, every attempted rebellion in Ireland, and 
 the experience of almost every magistrate, will corroborate my 
 assertion, when I say that the only war in which an Irish peasant 
 is pugnacious, is the war of words — when the parties are well 
 matched. If Ireland has had so many grievances to complain of, 
 and has had justice for her ally, and unrighteous oppression for 
 her adversary, how has she so often yielded to a few thousand 
 troops ? Because her people had not moral courage to sustain 
 them in such undertakings; because they had not sound know- 
 ledge for their guide, and enlarged principles for their regulation 
 and support. 
 
 They are not in circumstances parallel to those of any other 
 nation ; their intercourse with England and Scotland, and their 
 acquaintance, through the medium of the same language, with the 
 more liberal discussions of those nations ; the power of the press 
 for evil more than for good, at least for superficial declamation 
 more than for dispassionate investigation and calm reasoning; has 
 qualified those who do read for being voluble and vehement, rather 
 than patient and enlightened : the entire occupation of their minds 
 with politics, rather than with the sober realities of a reasonable 
 religion abounding with divine and ennobling principles, or with 
 the abstruse and recondite speculations of laborious learning, has 
 prevented improvement, and led them onward in agitation : they 
 live only for to-day, They have not among them the ripe fruits, 
 the full development of those principles which were sown in 
 England by English Puritans, and by the Covenanters and other 
 sufferers for conscience sake among the Scottish nation. The Irish 
 people have suffered by Church Establishments, not merely in 
 that they tended to impoverish the community, or because Esta- 
 blishments were employed to put down a better order of things, 
 but by occupying the ground which better institutions might 
 have filled, had it not appeared that more was doing for Ireland 
 than has actually been accomplished. But is all this a reason 
 that Ireland should be trampled upon P should be oppressed by 
 bad governors or bad laws ? should be given up to the divisions 
 and distractions consequent upon the mutual jealousies of hostile 
 factions of men, who meet for debate, to smite with the fist of 
 wickedness, and to exasperate the fiercer passions of a people 
 
19 
 
 already infuriated by party politics P Is it a reason that the sober, 
 industrious, and honest farmer should be intimidated or murdered? 
 that property should be rendered valueless or insecure, and that 
 the rural districts should be overrun by predial outlaws and mid- 
 night assassins ? 
 
 There are many causes of complaint, of vexatious and heart- 
 burning chagrin, to the honest patriot. The people are poor; 
 there are many miserably poor ; but let it not be forgotten, that 
 much of this poverty arises from a dependent, idle spirit — from 
 improvidence and intemperance. In many parts of the country, as 
 much whiskey from illicit distillation is used as from the licensed 
 dealer. Let it not be overlooked, too, that much of this misery 
 arises from the appointments and observances of their religion — 
 feast and fast-days, christenings and wakes, marriages and fune- 
 rals, saints’-days and masses for the dead ; in all which, priests’ 
 dues and whiskey drinking are levied, to the exhaustion of the im- 
 poverished treasury of the labouring and ill-paid peasant. The 
 unsettled state of the country prevents the introduction and appro- 
 priation of capital, for the establishment of manufactories, the 
 encouragement of agricultural speculation, or the continuance of 
 commercial adventure. Not only are timid clergymen and Pro- 
 testant landlords glad of an excuse to go, and intimidated farmers 
 driven, to America, by threatening notices and cruel persecution, 
 but English commercial gentlemen have affirmed that if things 
 continue as they are, English houses must withdraw their goods 
 from the Irish market, and be content to close accounts as well as 
 they can. 
 
 Tithe has been not merely a tax, but an incubus, upon the ap- 
 plication of capital and labour to the land. The yeomanry force, 
 and its occasional rencontres with the populace, have created ani- 
 mosity, bitterness, and revenge between neighbours. The consta- 
 bulary has been selected too much because the man was a good 
 protestant, or was recommended by a protestant gentleman. The 
 exclusion of Roman catholics for so long a time tended to loosen 
 the confidence of that community in the executive of the country. 
 Absent, but avaricious and needy landlords, ill-principled or over- 
 bearing agents (the agent generally of one profession, and the 
 tenant of another, in religion,) have countenanced discontent. 
 The constant and manifest desire of one party to maintain Protes- 
 tant ascendancy, and the equally strenuous and persevering effort 
 of the galled Roman catholic to throw off the yoke, and rise into 
 
20 
 
 the seat of his oppressor, kept up the irritation. And still, the 
 administration of justice and law being entrusted chiefly to the 
 minority — the forces of the executive, the municipal, and military 
 being ostentatiously composed and distinguished by the creed of 
 the smaller, but long ascendant party, have afforded pretexts for 
 complaint. The extravagant jobbing, so proverbial among the 
 adherents of the government of this country, and the no less 
 jobbing and paltry designs and interests of the agitators; the 
 recklessness of principle, of truth, and of fact on all sides ; the 
 maintenance of a separate executive, after the transference of all 
 legislative functions to the united parliament; the long withheld 
 measure of catholic emancipation, granted, at length, in acknow- 
 ledged answer to violent agitation ; the braggadocio speeches and 
 character of certain Irish leaders, and then their skulking, shuffling, 
 and personal meanness when fair encounter has been offered them — 
 all these, are some of the evils of this land of tears and sighs. 
 
 The measures proposed, and some of them effected, by the pre- 
 sent government, which I think will be an amelioration of its state, 
 are the opening and the purifying of corporations and boroughs — 
 a long row of Augean stables; the alteration in the grand jury 
 system, the entire abolition of the church cess, and the reduction 
 of the number of bishops, with the arrangements which are to 
 accompany this last measure. They or their successors must yet 
 advance further, and in their progress separate the Church from 
 the State — dissolve this unholy and most fatal union. As to 
 tithes, perhaps it would be well to make the landlords pay into 
 the treasury of the country a certain sum per acre, which may be 
 appropriated to the present beneficed clergymen, and to the sup- 
 port of such poor is it may be thought right to maintain by elee- 
 mosynary aid ; and as the present clergymen die out, let the protes- 
 tants of all persuasions adopt some means for the support each of 
 their own religion, and then let the tithes fall in to the proprietor, 
 according as he lowers the rent of his ground ; let the revenue of 
 church lands, as they are called, be appropriated then to truly 
 national purposes — the public debt, &c. ; and, further, let each 
 party support their own poor, or each town or city provide asy- 
 lums for the sick, infirm, and aged within their bounds. 
 
 My opinion is, that something coercive was required, for the 
 security of life and property throughout the country; the marau- 
 ders, the incendiary and midnight assassin, could not plead for 
 liberty ; the Whitefeet must be put down ; the assemblages of 
 
21 
 
 lawless men must be dispersed ; crimes against humanity must be 
 punished for the good of the many; the witness and the juror 
 must be protected. I do not doubt the truth of the statement 
 made by Ministers. I have been on the spot, among the moun- 
 tain ranges occupied by the illegal bands, who are a reproach to 
 their race, and a curse to their country. 
 
 I feel confident that much of the outrage committed has had 
 connexion with the political agitation of the Repeal question, and 
 with the supposed opinions of the Agitators themselves; and 
 while I am no apologist for Ministers, or partizan of politics, I ask. 
 Is it nothing in the esteem of the peasantry that they have seen 
 members of parliament, magistrates, and deputy-lieutenants, agi- 
 tating and urging Repeal, and joining the outcry raised by the 
 out-and-out advocates of that measure in all their censures and 
 condemnation of the Administration and Executive? Was it 
 nothing in the esteem of this people that members of parliament 
 should join, not merely in pleading the cause of those who had 
 violated the law, and resisted the payment of tithes under Govern- 
 ment prosecutions, and had gone forward to public meetings 
 uttering severe denunciations against Ministers, or the responsible 
 advisers of the Crown, connected with these proceedings ; but also 
 should refuse to conform to the law, and set an example of resist- 
 ance to others ? It should also be remembered who the people are 
 that have been most violent in trespassing law, breaking through 
 the bonds of society ; what inflammable materials are they com- 
 posed of! how easily stimulated ! The waters of Killarney are 
 not more effectually ruffled by a wind, and allayed by a calm, 
 than are these people maddened or influenced by the storm of 
 political excitement, and the agitation of wandering demagogues ! 
 
 It affords me pleasure to introduce here, an opinion not less 
 appropriate to Ireland now than it was 230 years ago, venerable for 
 antiquity, and paramount for authority among the statesmen of 
 Britain and the philosophers of the world. His own remarks will 
 suffice for preface and apology. “ As one that cannot leave to 
 love the State, what interest soever I have or may come to have in 
 it ; and as one that now this dead vacation time hath some leisure 
 ad aliud agendum; I will presume to propound unto you that 
 which, though you cannot but see, yet I know not whether you 
 apprehend and esteem in so high a degree ; that is, for the best 
 action of importation to yourself, of sound honour and merit to 
 her Majesty and this Crown, without ventosity and popularity, 
 
22 
 
 that the riches of any occasion, or the tide of any opportunity, can 
 possibly minister or offer; and that is the causes of Ireland, if 
 they be taken by the right handle. For if the wound be not ripped 
 up again, and come to a recrudency (rankling) by new foreign 
 succours, I think that no physician will go on much with letting 
 of blood, in declinatione morbi ; but will intend to purge and corro- 
 borate. To which purpose I send my opinion without labour of 
 words. This I hope I may in privateness write, either as a kins- 
 man that may be bold, or as a scholar that hath liberty of dis- 
 course, without committing any absurdity. But if it seem any 
 error in me thus to intromit myself, I pray your honour to believe 
 I ever loved her Majesty and the State, and there is never any 
 vehement love without some absurdity. So desiring your honour’s 
 pardon, I ever continue, &c. 
 
 “The reduction of that country, as well to civility and justice, 
 as to obedience and peace, which things, as affairs now stand, I hold 
 to be inseparable, consisteth in four points. The first, the extin- 
 guishing the relics of war. The difficulty is, to distinguish and 
 discern the propositions which shall be according to the ends of 
 the State here, — that is, final and summary towards the extirpa- 
 tion of the troubles, — from those which, though they pretend 
 public ends, yet may refer indeed to the more private and com- 
 pendious ends of the council there ; or of the particular governors 
 or captains. But still, as I touched in my letter, I do think 
 much letting of blood, in declinatione morbi , is against method of 
 cure; and that it will but induce necessity, and exasperate despair; 
 and percase discover the hollowness of that which is done already, 
 which now blazeth to the best shew. But of all other points, to 
 my understanding, the most effectual is, the well expressing or 
 impressing the designs of this State upon that miserable and de- 
 solate kingdom ; containing the same between these two lists or 
 boundaries — the one, that the Queen seeketh not an extirpation of 
 that people, but a reduction ; and that, now she hath chastised 
 them by her royal power and arms according to the necessity of 
 the occasion, her Majesty taketh no pleasure in effusion of blood, 
 or displanting of ancient generations : the other, that her Majes- 
 ty’s princely care is principally and intentionally bent upon the 
 action [improvement] of Ireland ; and that she seeketh not so 
 much the ease of charge, as the royal performance of the office of 
 protection, and reclaim of those her subjects ; and, in a word, that 
 the case is altered as far as may stand with the honour of the time 
 
23 
 
 past. I do repeat, that if her Majesty’s design be ex professu to 
 reduce wild and barbarous people to civility and justice, as well as 
 to reduce rebels to obedience, it makes weakness turn Christianity, 
 and conditions graces ; and so hath a fineness in turning utility 
 upon points of honour, which is agreeable to the humour of these 
 times. And besides, if her Majesty shall suddenly abate the lists 
 of her forces, and shall do nothing to countervail it in point of 
 reputation of a politic proceeding, I doubt things may too soon fall 
 back into the state they were in. Next to this ; adding reputation 
 to the cause, by imprinting an opinion of her Majesty’s care and 
 intention upon this action [improvement], in the taking away of 
 reputation from the contrary side, by cutting off the expectation 
 of foreign succours. 
 
 “Towards the recovery of the hearts of the people, there be but 
 three things in natura rerum — religion, justice, and protection, 
 obligation, and reward. For religion, to speak first of society, and 
 then of policy, all divines do agree, that if consciences be to be en- 
 forced at all, wherein yet they differ, two things must precede their 
 enforcement — the one, means of instruction ; the other, time of 
 operation ; neither of which they have yet had [under an effective 
 system]. Besides, till they be more like reasonable men than 
 they yet are, their society [fellowship] will be rather scandalous to 
 the true religion than otherwise, as pearls cast before swine : for 
 till they be cleansed from their blood, incontinency, and theft, 
 which are now not the lapses of particular persons but the very 
 laws of the nation, they are incompatible with religion reformed 
 [in spirit and in truth]. For policy, there is no doubt, to wrestle 
 with them now is directly opposite to their reclaiming, and cannot 
 but continue their alienation of mind from this government. 
 Besides, one of the principal pretences, whereby the heads of the 
 rebellion have prevailed both with the people and with the 
 foreigner, hath been the defence of the catholic religion ; and it is 
 this that hath made the foreigner reciprocally more plausible with 
 the rebel. Therefore a toleration of religion for a time not defi- 
 nite, after the manner of some French edicts, seemeth to me to be 
 a matter warrantable, by religion, and, in policy, of absolute ne- 
 cessity. And the hesitation on this point, I think, hath been a 
 great casting back of the affairs there. Neither if any English 
 papist or recusant shall for liberty of his conscience transfer his 
 person, family, and fortune thither, do I hold it a matter of dan- 
 ger, but expedient. Neither if Rome will cozen itself, by con- 
 
24 
 
 ceiving it may be some degree to the like toleration in England, 
 do I hold it a matter of any moment, but rather a good means to 
 take off the fierceness and eagerness of the humour of Rome, and 
 to stay further excommunications or interdictions for Ireland. 
 But there would go with this, hand in hand, some course of ad- 
 vancing religion indeed, were the people capable thereof [here 
 the learned and noble counsellor entrusts to the Government, 
 what we would commit to the people of England, as neighbours, 
 responsible for the good of their brethren], as the sending over 
 some good preachers, especially of that sort which are vehement 
 and zealous persuaders, and not scholastical, to be resident in 
 principal towns, endowing them with some stipends out of her 
 Majesty’s revenues [we would prefer Christian benevolence or in- 
 dividual liberality], as her Majesty hath most religiously and 
 graciously done in Lancashire; and the recontinuing and re- 
 plenishing the college begun at Dublin, the placing of good men 
 to be bishops in the sees there [or we would recommend rather a 
 dissolution of the sees altogether], and the taking care of the ver- 
 sions of Bibles and catechisms, and other books of instruction, into 
 the Irish language; and the like religious courses both for the 
 honour of God, and for the avoiding of scandal and insatisfaction 
 here, by the show of a toleration of religion in some parts there. 
 
 “For justice; the barbarism and desolation of the country 
 considered, it is not possible they should find any sweetness at all 
 of justice, if it shall be, which hath been the error of times past, 
 formal and fetched far off from the State ; because it will require 
 running up and down for process, and give occasion for polling 
 and exactions by fees, and many other delays and charges [here 
 the author recommends the administration of justice to be as near 
 as may be to the laws and customs of England]. 
 
 “ It is true, no doubt, which was anciently said, that a State is 
 contained in two words, prcemium and poena : and I am persuaded 
 if a penny in the pound which hath been spent in poena (for this 
 kind of war is but poena, a chastisement of rebels, without fruit or 
 emolument to this state) had been spent in proemio, that is in re- 
 warding, things had never grown to this extremity. But to speak 
 forwards. The keeping of the principal Irish persons in terms of 
 contentment, and without cause of particular complaint ; and gene- 
 rally the carrying of an even course between the English and Irish, 
 whether it be in competition or in controversy, as if they were one 
 nation, — without that same partial course which hath been held by 
 the Governors and Counsellors there, that some have favoured the 
 
25 
 
 Irish and some contrary, — is one of the best medicines of that 
 state. And as for other points of contentment, as the countenanc- 
 ing of their nobility, as well in this Court as there, the imparting 
 of knighthood, the care of the education of their children, and the 
 like points of comfort and allurement.” Thus far Francis Bacon. 
 
 He must be a wise statesman who shall settle things into good 
 order. A wise statesman would hardly, for his own sake, under- 
 take the Herculean task ; a schoolboy might — and then, woe to 
 the country, and to him too, if he be left to his rashness. The 
 mass of the people are little removed from the rank of barbarians, 
 and, from their effervescent nature, easily excited ; they yet require 
 to be morally trained. The men who are a little superior to the 
 lower ranks are apt enough, but they have not been taught, — they 
 are not informed, — they do not think largely or reason liberally. 
 What we would call the middle and upper classes, have either 
 been cooped in the cage of protestant ascendancy, or shrivelled 
 under the withering blasts of popery. It is often astonishing how 
 little cultivated intellect is found, — how contracted their minds 
 are, — how few noble and sustaining principles are in action, — 
 how empty and inefficient, and how thoroughly unguided by any 
 liberal principles, are the expeditious measures and statements of 
 gentlemen who rank as magistrates. These observations are of 
 course upon character generally, not universally. There are many 
 bright exceptions. As for the highest ranks, they are, as far as 
 politics are concerned, fitly represented by a Lorton, a Farnham, 
 a Roden, or a Lefroy. What, then, should be done ? Try to 
 leave every element of this heterogeneous mass to work by itself ; 
 and let a wise and good government educe as they can good 
 from the evil, and a cure for itself from the working of the disease. 
 Solve the one from the other, till the political alchymist has each 
 separate element under his control. But shall property have no 
 influence P shall the man who spends his thousands exert no more 
 sway than the mechanic ? I should say, let him have no more 
 physical influence; if he exert himself wisely, humanely, and con- 
 stantly, — if he spends his thousands well, — if, seeking his own 
 fitness for superiority, he strive to be a wiser and a better man, to do 
 more good, and to communicate more correct information than his 
 poorer neighbour, he ivill have influence, — an influence that will 
 be salutary to the people, honourable to himself, and a benefit to 
 the country. He need not tell his peculiar opinions on specific 
 occasions ; a grateful and improved people will know the mind and 
 wishes of their benefactor and adviser. 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 THE ANGLO-HIBERNIAN CHURCH AS IT HAS 
 BEEN. 
 
 Ireland, in former days, was reputed an island of saints ; and 
 the title to such distinction seems to have been founded, not on 
 the ascendancy which the Bishop of Rome had acquired within 
 her shores, or the influence which he possessed among the clergy, 
 who taught the people knowledge, — this country was famed for 
 learning and piety, when surrounding nations were in darkness, 
 or prostrate at the feet of sacerdotal domination, and episcopal 
 tyranny. In the fourth century the renowned St. Patrick was a 
 missionary to the Irish and Scots ; and his labours were crowned 
 with signal success. In the year 521, Columbus, or Colum Cille, 
 was born, an Irishman, and of royal descent ; when a child, he 
 was dignified with the epithet — Saint; and at twenty-eight years 
 of age, or in the year 549, he founded the monastery of Derry. 
 When forty-two years old, he became a missionary to the benighted 
 Scots, and, carrying with him the principles he had inculcated in 
 Ireland, he established an order of labourers, who were so devoted 
 and diligent in their work, that they obtained, by the suffrage of 
 their fellow men, the appellation Cullores Dei, contracted after- 
 wards into Culdee ; who studied the Holy Scriptures with such 
 intense application, and so proved things by the authority of the 
 inspired Word, that they became an asylum for truth and pure 
 religion for ages, and were witnesses for the spirituality and sim- 
 plicity of the Christian faith against the darkening and super- 
 stitious encroachments of the middle ages. They differed from 
 the church of Rome, both in the observance of Easter and the 
 clerical tonsure. It is believed, upon no despicable authorities in 
 ecclesiastical annals, that the Culdees, who became the evange- 
 lical missionaries in Scotland, and who there founded religious 
 institutions of remote antiquity, were generous-hearted Irishmen, 
 breathing the spirit of martyrs, and performing the labours of 
 
27 
 
 holy men and apostles. It is recorded, in the most authentic 
 church history, that the Hibernians, who were sometimes called 
 Scots, were lovers of learning, and distinguished themselves by 
 the culture of the sciences beyond all the European nations; 
 travelling through the most distant lands, both with a view to 
 improve and to communicate their knowledge ; discharging, with 
 the highest reputation and applause, the function of Doctor in 
 France and Germany, and even Italy itself; while the most 
 eminent of them, in the darkest age, thought common sense no 
 heresy, and declared that in the Lord’s Supper we receive not 
 the body and blood of our Lord, but only a memorial of Him. 
 
 In the year 1156, the King of England, Henry the Second, 
 was exhorted by Pope Adrian to invade Ireland, in order to extir- 
 pate the vice and wickedness (the peculiarities of their religion?) 
 of the natives, and oblige them to pay yearly, from every house, a 
 penny to the See of Rome. It is a well-known fact, that the 
 Irish entertained and practised Christianity in a form not exactly 
 according to the model dictated by the Pontiff, and had mani- 
 fested a tenacious reluctance to mould their proceedings according 
 to his authority. Henry the Second, A.D. 1172, acquired an 
 ascendancy in the political rule of Ireland ; and having been 
 confirmed in the sovereign power by a renewed papal grant, he 
 lent his resources, with energy and success, to consolidate the 
 dominion of the Roman Hierarch in this country, and invest him 
 with actual spiritual authority over her children : perhaps not so 
 much from love and veneration to the ecclesiastical occupant of 
 the Seven Hills, as that, on the maxim, “ No bishop , no king ,” — 
 or “ Church and King,” — he might more securely manage his 
 conquered province, and render the people more amenable to his 
 mandates. On the same hypocritical principle did Ireland con- 
 tinue to be oppressed, not governed, by every succeeding despot, 
 till the Reformation ; and then the power which had enforced 
 conformity to papistical canons, and by persecution had grafted 
 Ireland on the stock of Romanism, attempted to constrain a 
 national reformation, and change the seasons, customs, and wor- 
 ship of the people. And as by the unholy arts of hypocrisy and 
 cruel despotism, the yoke of ignorance, priestcraft, and super- 
 stition had been imposed, so it was imagined that by like means, 
 aided by penal enactments and confiscation, the people might be 
 conformed to the fluctuations of a libidinous king, or the caprice 
 of a domineering and imperious woman. But donations are 
 
28 
 
 easier made to the church than reclaimed by the giver. The 
 sacerdotal treasury is like the horse-leech and her two daughters — 
 “ Give, give/’ is the cry ; but all that she has received are vested 
 rights. While, in reference to opinions, if error be not more 
 diffusive in its nature than truth, it has less to contend with, and 
 is propagated with more facility among ignorant men than are 
 the details of wisdom. 
 
 George Brown, a monk of the Augustine order, was created 
 Archbishop of Dublin, by Henry the Eighth, in the year 1535. 
 Within five years after his accession to that see, he caused all 
 superstitious relics and images to be removed out of the two 
 cathedrals in Dublin, and out of the churches in his diocese; and 
 caused the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the 
 Creed to be placed in gilded frames about the altars. He was the 
 first of the clergy that turned from the Romish religion in Ireland. 
 This was after Henry had been declared Supreme Head upon earth 
 of the Church of England. Archishop Brown caused this king’s 
 supremacy to be acknowledged in Ireland. At this transference 
 of papal power from a foreign priest to a neighbouring and wicked 
 king, the machinery of the Romish hierarchy was retained, while 
 the places were filled by the fawning dependents of the English 
 court : men that sought preferment under the new order of things, 
 with as much love of the world as had been displayed by their 
 predecessors in office, and with more secularity than such of their 
 precursors as had a scrupulous regard to consistency, and a 
 conscientious attachment to their Romish connexion, and who 
 were, therefore, cast upon their people for support and security. 
 
 Who shall write the annals of the Church established by law, 
 according to acts of Parliament, from that day to this P Who 
 shall delineate the character, principles, and measures of the men 
 employed for the suppression of one kind of Popery, and main- 
 tenance of another, and who were set forth as the bulwarks of 
 Reformed Episcopacy ? Who shall undertake the dreary task, 
 not of “calling evil good, and good evil, of putting darkness for 
 light, and light for darkness, or bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
 bitter,” but of giving right words, in fit places, for the deeds done, 
 and the oppressions inflicted, during this protracted and Protestant 
 crusade ? I shall not : neither is it necessary. It is already 
 done ; the archives of heaven possess it, and the roll thereof shall 
 be opened when the judgment is set. Many of the most con- 
 spicuous actors have been called ere this to blush, while the light 
 
29 
 
 of immortality has beamed upon the red and blotted page, and 
 the realities of eternity have been brought into contrast with the 
 momentary triumphs of polemical controversy, the evanescent 
 shadows of ecclesiastical distinction, and the deceitfulness and 
 glittering vanity of filthy lucre and secular possessions. An 
 active memory has recalled more than the most fearful imagina- 
 tion ever pictured ; the Lord of the stewardship has made a more 
 minute scrutiny than could have been recorded by the most 
 patient and successful student of history; while from His tribunal 
 there lies no appeal, neither is there any reversal of his decree. 
 A fruitless effort may have been made by some to shake, or wash 
 out, from their skirts the blood of souls ; while others may have 
 deceived themselves by vain delusions, and gone down to the 
 grave with a lie in their right hand ; — but blood -guiltiness has 
 still been found in them by the piercing eye of the Omniscient, 
 the “faithful and true witness,” the Almighty Judge. Others 
 have, through much tribulation, fulfilled the trust of suffering 
 and serving, having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb : 
 and no man shall be able to take the crown from him who has 
 been faithful, or erase from the book of remembrance the name 
 of him who has sought so to preach the glorious gospel, as that 
 the savour of the blessed truth may be like ointment poured forth, 
 for the healing of the diseased and perishing souls to whom, as 
 heralds of the cross, they were sent. 
 
 A Census has recently been taken of the population of Ireland, 
 the details of which are not at present accessible to me ; but the 
 numbers computed are not far short of Eight Millions. I shall 
 satisfy 7 myself by specifying, in general terms, the proportion of 
 the respective religious communities in this country ; hereafter, we 
 may detail more minutely the numbers and denominations. The 
 chief divisions may he designated as Roman Catholic, Church of 
 England, Presbyterian, and other Dissenters. Now, I presume, 
 if we reckon the Methodists and other minor dissenting bodies in 
 Ireland as amounting to about 150,000 souls, of all ages, our 
 numbers will be within limits : if I take the two chief divisions of 
 Presbyterians — the Synod of Ulster, and the general seced- 
 ing Synod of Ireland, and the smaller societies — such as the 
 Cameronians, the Munster Synod, the Remonstrant Synod, 
 and others, as containing about 700,000 children and adults, I 
 shall not greatly err. If I compute, for every Protestant parish, 
 two hundred and ten adherents to the Church established by law. 
 
30 
 
 I shall find not quite 600,000 members of that community : all 
 which added together, will make a population of nearly 1,500,000 
 in round numbers, who are not Roman Catholics, and will leave 
 6,000,000 and upwards as the nominal members of the Romish 
 Church. Three hundred years after Church of England Epis- 
 copacy hath been established by legislative enactment in Ireland, 
 and such a consummation ! ! It is a curious question. If such 
 has been the result, what has been the machinery ; what has been 
 the apparatus brought to bear upon the moral condition of this 
 people, under legislative auspices, enforced by penal sanctions, 
 and cherished by the smiles of noble patrons and a kingly court? 
 
 I mean to give, as far as I can gather materials, details con- 
 nected with the Roman Catholic and other ecclesiastical commu- 
 nities in Ireland : but I shall, at present, confine myself and my 
 enquiries to the Church of England. The following illustration is 
 not from vague hearsay, from the Red Book, or the Black Book; but 
 is from a work patronised by the bishops, — it must be true ! There 
 are in the Church of England established by Act of Parliament in 
 Ireland, according to the Ecclesiastical Register, — 
 
 Parishes 2450 
 
 Benefices 1396 
 
 Churches 1192 
 
 Perpetual Curacies 109 
 
 Chapelries 80 
 
 Cathedral Churches .... 24 
 
 In the province of Cashel, one half the benefices are altoge- 
 ther destitute of churches; and in the province of Tuam, one- 
 third of the benefices are in a similar state of destitution. The 
 apologists for the Episcopal Church in Ireland describe her days of 
 darkness, at least of misgovernment, as all passed away by the act 
 of legislative union ; and assert, that since that event her bishops 
 have wrought a wonderful transformation, so that now the church 
 has put on her beautiful garments ; and they hardly hesitate and 
 apply scriptural allegory to her progress, as becoming “ fair as the 
 moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” 
 As a proof of episcopal zeal and ecclesiastical prosperity, the in- 
 crease, not of congregations, but of edifices, is alleged and urgently 
 appealed to; six hundred and eighteen churches, that is, places of 
 congregation, have been erected since the union, they say : and all 
 this has been effected in thirty years ; while in three hundred years 
 preceding, no greater number had been built. If this be true, 
 what had become of all the church buildings, so numerous previ- 
 ous to the era of Henry the Eighth ? where did the people assem- 
 ble for worship, before the king of England was enthroned as head 
 
31 
 
 of the church on earth ? But should church-building he esteemed 
 a mark of piety and ecclesiastical prosperity, any Roman Catholic 
 country will afford such proof. The more debased their character, 
 the less enlightened their mind, the more superstitious their fear, 
 so much the more numerous will be their ecclesiastical edifices. 
 So is it in Italy, in Portugal, in Madeira, and in Goa. But let us 
 suppose that these buildings were reared in Ireland during the last 
 thirty years, did they rise under the influence of the best motives — 
 did the bishops build them, or pay for their erection P If not, who 
 then contributed to the funds ; did the clergy, or the protestant 
 people only ; or were they the free-will offerings of numerous con- 
 verts ? If by impositions or forced exactions from the people, so 
 much the worse; this is choosing “ robbery for burnt offering 
 this was not “ mercy rather than sacrifice ; ” it was sacrilege, and 
 not a reasonable service. It was, in short, a course of procedure 
 not inaptly described in the language of Isaiah concerning the 
 members of an established church — “ he that killeth an ox is as if 
 he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s 
 neck ; he that offeretb an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood ; 
 he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.” But supposing 
 the truth of the assertion, have these houses for worship been 
 crowded by willing votaries ? Did the bishops, those ostensible 
 heads of the church, proceed in missions of evangelical enterprise, 
 to gather by the shepherd’s crook or the pastor’s voice the sheep 
 wandering among the mountains, the flock scattered in the cloudy 
 and dark day ? 
 
 But further; it is boldly affirmed, that many applications have 
 been made for new churches. By whom (we reply), and with 
 what motives ? Fifty-eight cases were submitted to the Board of 
 First Fruits in 1826, for new places of worship, which were all 
 rejected because the Board had not the necessary funds. If all 
 the first fruits had been paid in by beneficed clergy according to 
 act of parliament — if there had been no resistance on the part of 
 the clergy to this tithe — if salaried agents of the Board had been 
 paid as work was done ; or if the bishops, who are the leaders of 
 the people in the church, had sold all and given for the poor, and 
 become followers of their professed master and his fishermen of 
 Galilee, to whom the bishops are said to be successors, would it 
 have been necessary, with their revenues, to resist applications 
 merely because there were no funds P It is urged that the State 
 ought to have met such an emergency ; but who or what is the 
 
3*2 
 
 State ? the great public officers of the crown ? or the legislators of 
 the realm ? or the individual inhabitants of the land ? If the last, 
 what compact have they made, under what obligations have 
 they come, to build churches ? Some have been heavily taxed 
 without their consent, but they protest against the imposition. 
 Where can the legislature obtain resources, or where are the terms 
 of their obligation ? Who were the contracting parties? If the 
 great officers of state be held responsible, they have no power to 
 provide funds except by taxing the people. They are but salaried 
 servants of the public ; and should servants become oppressors ? 
 or can human enactments legalize force and imposition in matters 
 of religion ? Shall we do evil that good may come ? 
 
 So much for divisions, boundaries, walls, and accommodation : 
 we come now to the more dignified, but less durable materials — 
 the moral apparatus of the establishment; those whose secular 
 interests can extend only through one age, as connected with the 
 law church. No one can designate the present occupants of eccle- 
 siastical preferment as the lineal representatives of the clergy of a 
 former age, or the natural progenitors and parental guardians of 
 the clergy of a future generation ; they are, in their clerical cha- 
 racter, emphatically, yevo^n^ spiov, and can have no hereditary rights 
 to be invaded or preserved. 
 
 Of Perpetual Curates and Insti- 
 tutional Chaplains, there are 255 
 Incumbents or beneficed Cler- 
 gymen 1556 
 
 Of whom are parochial Clergy 
 
 merely 1215 
 
 Prebendaries, simple dignita- 
 ries 180 
 
 Analysis shews, that of the three hundred and forty-one Digni- 
 taries, two hundred and nineteen are connected with the cure of 
 souls, and one hundred and twenty-two are sinecures. It is pre- 
 sumed there are of other clergy, eight hundred or a thousand, em- 
 ployed as Curates, doing duty, waiting for preferment, or wearied 
 with “ hope deferred ” which “ maketh the heart sick.” Of these, 
 however, I can obtain no authenticated enumeration ; even the 
 Vicar of Bannow seems unable to fix their numbers. This much 
 I know, that there has recently been a migration of some of them, 
 not only to the Colonies, but also to various counties in England. 
 But as they are only in the character of a corps de reserve, I shall 
 
 Archdeacons, ditto 34 
 
 Deans 33 
 
 Precentors 26 
 
 Chancellors 22 
 
 Treasurers 22 
 
 Bishops, have been 18 
 
 Archbishops, have been ...... 4 
 
 Provosts 2 
 
33 
 
 not at present enter into any discussion of their duties or prero- 
 gatives. 
 
 The ecclesiastical distinction of Provosts, I shall reserve for a 
 concluding observation : but of the Archbishops it is to be remarked, 
 that they are distinguished, first, as the Lord Archbishop of Armagh, 
 Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland ; second, as the Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, Primate and Metropolitan of Ireland, and Bishop 
 of Glandelagh ; third, as the Lord Archbishop of Cashel, Primate 
 and Metropolitan of Munster, and Bishop of Emly ; and fourthly, 
 as the Lord Archbishop of Tuam, Primate and Metropolitan of Con- 
 naught, and Bishop ofArdagh. Fine sounding names enough these, 
 and long and pompous titles to boot, for those meek and laborious 
 successors of the fishermen of Galilee ! If the honour which cometh 
 from man would convert a people, long enough has its vapoury 
 breath been inhaled by the prelatical nobles of this land, and rapid 
 should have been the advances of that hierarchy. I find, moreover, 
 to borrow Mr. Beverley's discriminating observations, that they are 
 called Fathers ; and, as if that were not enough, in order to make 
 them a perfect divinity, they are called Most Reverend Fathers — a 
 title which can only be applied to the Almighty without profaneness; 
 for the true meaning of the title is, * a Father most to be worshipped/ 
 Not content with heavenly attributes, there is an additional title in 
 all men's mouths, of ' Your Grace!' — a silly superscription, which 
 it is difficult to explain, though it is decorous (through usage merely) 
 to employ it. Johnson's Dictionary gives us the following meanings 
 of the word (grace), 'favour — kindness — virtue — pardon — ad- 
 ventitious or artificial beauty — pleasing appearance — embellish- 
 ment — ornament — flower — a short prayer said before and after 
 meat.' Let us suppose, then, that I were to use any of these 
 synonymes, and to call an Archbishop, ‘ Your embellishment,' or 
 * Your ornament,' or * Your artificial beauty,' 
 
 Solventur risu tabulae, tu missus abibis. 
 
 The eighteen episcopal Dioceses were originally twenty-seven. But 
 three were more recently subject to the Bishop of Limerick ; (what 
 a pluralist was he of Limerick !) and two each have hitherto been 
 held by the Bishops of Clonfert, Cork, Down, Ferns, Killala, Kil- 
 laloe, and Waterford. Complaints from the wearers of these double 
 honours, have not been loudly uttered, or often heard. It is pro- 
 bable that since the days of their junction, few of the aspirants after 
 the mitre, even when they faintly muttered, “ Nolo Episcopari,” 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 would be disposed to controvert the maxim, “ The king can do no 
 wrong.” And “ What the king has united, let not any man put 
 asunder.” However, the churchman is more scrupulous in these 
 days, and there is fearful hostility to a union of bishoprics now. 
 This is one of the consequences of the march of — ambition ; all the 
 rules of Malthus will not keep the population within bounds, — and 
 many would be bishops. 
 
 The Treasurerships are divided into sixteen, with which is asso- 
 ciated some other incumbency with the cure of souls, and six that 
 are sinecure ; but the official duty, which of old consisted in receiving 
 and disbursing the rents and revenues of monasteries, is now limited 
 to a superintendence and control over the chapter-rents, &c. The 
 collection and management, the receipt and disbursement, now de- 
 volve on the registrar or agent of the dean and chapter. Except 
 the man who was a thief, and held the bag, and who seems to have 
 acted as treasurer, though not very honestly, in the little community 
 of disciples who first followed Jesus, we do not read of any Trea- 
 surer among the primitive Christians mentioned in sacred history. 
 
 The Chancellorship is merely a title of office, (how many such 
 there are in this Established Church !) without jurisdiction or ser- 
 vice, except to preach in propria persona, or by deputy, in his turn, 
 in the cathedral church ; fifteen of the Chancellors are connected 
 with other active duties, and seven are without cures. Would the 
 Church suffer if she were without them ? or would they be coveted, 
 if they were without emolument ? 
 
 Nine of the Precentors are declared to be sinecures, and seventeen 
 are represented as connected with incumbencies which have the 
 cure of souls. In the times of singing men and singing women for 
 the Church, the care of the choir service devolved on the Precentor, 
 and he provided books for them, paid their salaries, repaired the 
 organ, sackbut, or psaltery, presided over the music, &c. There 
 are, however, but few now of the cathedral churches in which a 
 choir-service is maintained, and we have vicars-choral, & c. ; the 
 office, therefore, is only one of distinction and emolument. Would 
 Asaph’s songs, or any of the songs of Korah and Heman of old, 
 have been so plaintive, sweet, and heavenly, had they been such 
 Precentors ? 
 
 Of the thirty-three Deans, twenty-six are said to have the cure 
 of souls (I cannot say whether the Right Hon. and Very Rev. James 
 Lord Viscount Lifford, LL.D., be one of them or not) ; seven are 
 sinecures, some of them are even without chapters, as Kilmore, 
 
35 
 
 Ardagh, and Clonmacnoise. So far from the interference of Deans 
 being expected in the government of the diocese, it would be looked 
 upon as an intrusion. Their signatures are, however, required by 
 law to confirm leases and appoint to offices ; for such work is it 
 
 a fitting appellation to be used — The Very Rev. the Dean of ? 
 
 would not Parish-clerk do just as well ? 
 
 In Ireland, Archdeacons possess a visitorial jurisdiction; their 
 power is, however, very limited and circumscribed. They seem to 
 be regarded as part of the episcopal train, and attend at ordinations 
 to examine candidates for the office of clerk ; also at the consecration 
 of churches. Three-and-twenty have, combined with this office, 
 the cure of souls — eleven are sinecures. Why will the Reformed 
 Church adhere so tenaciously to the rags and tinsel, the vain 
 shadows, of what once were at Rome ? Does she hold, or will her 
 doctors affirm, that these are the insignia of a true church ? 
 
 The ignorance, bigotry, and degradation produced by the opera- 
 tion of an Establishment are most conspicuous in cathedral towns, 
 or in the vicinity of cathedrals. Here, it has been justly said, the 
 rulers of the darkness of this world are enthroned in great state and 
 dignity. A Dean and Chapter act like a Upas tree on all the 
 neighbourhood. Luxury and priestly pride hold court in these 
 receptacles of clerical indolence in England ; but in Ireland the 
 moral pestilence is seen in the squalid poverty, the abject debase- 
 ment, and the irreligion of the populace around : so that the 
 Christian religion can scarcely be said to exist in the proximity of 
 their dark and deadly shade. The religious aspect of these thrones 
 of Satan is indeed deplorable ; for, owing to the antiquity of ca- 
 thedral influence, the deadening operation of enormous wealth among 
 the clergy, their aristocratical connexions, and the enervating luxury 
 of their lives, the practical manifestation of the Christian faith is 
 checked, the exhibition of its light is intercepted, and every principle 
 the most inimical to its operation is there, in exalted and prominent 
 dominion. Those who have derived their ideas of the Church of 
 Christ from the Bible, and not from the books published by “ The 
 Society for the promoting of Christian Knowledge,” as it is impro- 
 perly designated ; or from the charges of Archdeacons and Bishops ; 
 have been directed to go to any of the Cathedral towns in England : 
 we would say, go to any of the Cathedral closes in Ireland — St. 
 Patricks if they please, — and with their own eyes and ears ascertain 
 the state of religion in those Egyptian houses of bondage. What 
 will they see and hear P A chosen regiment of Cathedral priests. 
 
36 
 
 on the exhibition days, from the Dean down to the Vicar Choral, 
 whose religious labours consist in going so many times through the 
 service of the Cathedral, when a choir of adult dandies and impu- 
 dent boys sing songs to one another in white robes : the whole of 
 the service is generally for their own exclusive benefit, none others 
 feeling interested enough to attend. Cathedrals may be named, 
 where, for whole weeks together, no one but the clergy and cho- 
 risters are seen, except on Sundays, when Protestant high mass is 
 performed, with additional singing and mummery, when religion is 
 insulted, the word of the God of heaven profaned, and music is 
 murdered with all the tediousness of an opera, though without any 
 of its beauties. 
 
 Truly the most ardent admirers of Church abuses must be con- 
 strained to confess, that the Cathedral establishments are a disgrace 
 to the very name of Christianity ; and that an unsparing hand 
 should be laid, first of all, on these fastnesses of sloth and ignorance. 
 They are much worse than the old monasteries, because in those 
 superstitious cloisters the wealth and the intellects of the monks 
 were turned to support the religion of the day, such as it was ; but 
 in our Cathedrals, the whole revenues are expended on the families 
 of persons who take aw 7 ay every thing, and give back nothing. 
 
 The distinction of Prebendary is said to be derived from the assist- 
 ance afforded by the Church, to the holders of this office, in meat, 
 drink, and other necessaries ; or perhaps from the assistance which 
 they rendered her in consuming the good things provided by the 
 profusion of an ignorant and superstitious age. None of the Irish 
 prebendaries, as such, are possessed of any ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion ; they are all simple prebendaries, having no cure, and no more 
 than their revenue for support. We must except the episcopal 
 gentlemen (some five or six), who, being prebends, help the lower 
 clergy to assist the Church in using her good things. Yet a simple 
 prebendary is not deemed incompatible with a parochial benefice, 
 which may be held without a dispensation ; since, though possession 
 is acquired by institution, the holder is not instituted to the cure of 
 souls, notwithstanding that the cure of souls attaches not to any 
 office in the Chapter as such. There have been united to most of 
 the prebendaries, by charter or otherwise, one or more parishes 
 with cure of souls annexed. Fifty-eight are sinecure, but one 
 hundred and twenty-two have the cure of souls, by parishes being 
 appended to them. If the kingdom of God were meat and drink 
 merely, we should perceive an adaptation of character in these 
 
37 
 
 prebends ; but since a man’s life consists not in the abundance of 
 the things he possesses, according to the Scriptures, the prebendary 
 law seems designed more for the body than the soul. 
 
 Moreover, though the Prebendaries or Canons receive munificent 
 salaries, say £200 per annum, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, for 
 living in idleness, and preaching one sermon yearly, that Cathedral, 
 as well as many others, is in a sad state of dilapidation, for want 
 of funds to keep them in repair ; it being considered much more 
 important to pay thousands every year to keep the reverend pre- 
 bendaries in good condition, than to spend a few hundreds every 
 year on the venerable edifices which they disfigure by their presence. 
 The words of an Archbishop, written many a long day since, are 
 wonderfully appropriate even now. 
 
 “ My singular good Lord, 
 
 : Nevertheless, in my opinion, the Preben- 
 daries, which will be allowed £40 a-piece yearly, might be altered 
 to a more expedient use. And this is my consideration, for having 
 experience, both in times past, and also in our days, how the said 
 sect of Prebendaries have not only spent their time much in idle- 
 ness, and their substance in superfluous belly-cheer , I think it not a 
 convenient state or degree to be maintained and established, consi- 
 dering, first, that a Prebendary is neither a learner nor a preacher, but 
 a good viander : then by the same they look to be chief, and bear all 
 the whole rule and pre-eminence in the college where they be resident, 
 by means whereof the younger of their own nature, who give more to 
 pleasure and good cheer or pastimes, than to abstinence, study, and 
 learning, shall be easily brought from their books to follow the example 
 and appetite of the same Prebendaries, being their heads and rulers: 
 and the state of Prebendaries has been so excessively abused, that 
 when learned men have been admitted into such room, many time 
 have they desisted from their good and godly studies, and all the 
 virtuous exercises of teaching and preaching. Wherefore, if it may 
 stand with the King’s good pleasure, I would wish not only that 
 the name of Prebendary were exiled his Grace’s foundation, but 
 also the superfluous condition of such persons. I cannot deny that 
 the beginning of prebendaries was no less proposed for the mainte- 
 nance of good learning, and good conversation of living, than religious 
 men [orders] were ; but forasmuch as both be gone from their first 
 estate and order, and the one is found like offender with the other, 
 it maketh no great matter if they both perish together : for to say 
 
38 
 
 the truth, it is an estate which St. Paul, reckoning up the degrees 
 and estates allowed in his time, could not find in the Church of 
 Christ.” — Crammer's Letter to Lord Cromwell. 
 
 What, it has been demanded, would the Christian religion suffer 
 at any of the Cathedral towns, if the Dean, Chapter, and Preben- 
 daries were all sent off to-morrow morning, on a permanent mission 
 to convert the Chinese Mandarins P We would reply ; Not much 
 in these towns, but it would receive great damage among the Man- 
 darins, inasmuch as they would present an imperfect model of the 
 Christian church, would be engaged in a work for which they are 
 generally ill qualified, and would stand in the way of more able 
 and zealous labourers. How many souls, within the last thirty 
 years, have been brought to a serious sense of religion by any 
 teaching or preaching of prebendaries, it would not be easy to 
 determine ; but it is to be feared that few dying persons have had to 
 bless the Deans and other dignitaries of that pompous Establish- 
 ment, for a saving knowledge of their Redeemer. They have not 
 often been signalized for their holy conversation and godliness, their 
 edifying examples, their sacred zeal for the cross, their watchings, 
 their labours, their fastings, their prayers, their exhortations, their 
 visitings of the sick, and instructions of the poor. “ Ye eat the fat, 
 and ye clothe you with the wool ; ye kill them that are fed ; but ye 
 feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither 
 have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that 
 which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was 
 driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but 
 with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. Seemeth it a small 
 thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must 
 tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures ; and to 
 have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with 
 your feet?” 
 
 There is no duty whatever connected with the office of Provost in 
 the Church of Ireland ; neither have they any cure or spiritual juris- 
 diction. The Duke of Wellington might have found a use for them 
 in the Peninsula, had they been provosts- marshal ; but what work 
 can be found for them in a peaceful establishment perplexes an in- 
 quirer. These offices are denominated simple dignitaries in Ireland ; 
 would it not be well if they had become obsolete dignitaries, in a 
 church which is now set forth as the butt of sarcasm and reproach, 
 and on that account is tottering to her very foundations ? Remove 
 
39 
 
 these stumbling-blocks out of the way, and episcopacy may yet live 
 awhile and serve her country. 
 
 The degree of confidence with which not only the humbler and 
 more sanguine, but even the richer and more aristocratic, the digni- 
 taries and prelates of this land, regard the efficiency of the ecclesi- 
 astical establishment, may be estimated from various expedients re- 
 sorted to, since public attention has been practically directed to the 
 wants and woes of Ireland. There are noblemen, who, following 
 the example of our pious ancestors, have appointed men in whom 
 they repose confidence to the situation of domestic chaplains in their 
 families. The propriety of this arrangement may not always have 
 originated in the negligence of the parochial clergy ; still, it may not 
 be unquestionable, in some instances, whether the inefficiency of 
 the resident rector (where he has been resident) or the curate did 
 occasion such appointments. The cause, perhaps, is yet more pal- 
 pable, which has operated on the minds of a Clanbrassil, a Mande- 
 ville, or a Farnbam, so effectually as to introduce into their arrange- 
 ments the employment of a new order of men, entitled moral agents, 
 — a race of amphibious character, neither lay nor clerical : whence 
 the necessity, and whence the origin of such labourers, to whom are 
 committed the management of schools, the superintendence of cha- 
 rities, and the visits of mercy to the sick and ignorant, if the esta- 
 blishment, which is so well stocked, be also efficient ? and what is 
 implied in the acknowledged necessity of such an apparatus as this 
 for the country, even in the vicinity of these lords* demesnes ? 
 
 Still another expedient of protestant zeal, but not of judicious 
 design or innoxious tendency, stands forth as a speaking witness 
 against the adaptation of all the ecclesiastical machinery, which 
 abounds so extravagantly, which is so unjustly oppressive, and has 
 been employed in Ireland for three centuries with such inefficiency : 
 — the Reformation Society has been patronized as a sort of demi- 
 state chariot, in which are yoked, as the great leaders, noble lords 
 and episcopal dignitaries; in which it was predicted,— at least antici- 
 pated, — that nominal protestantism would drive over this land with- 
 out a hindrance or a pause ; and by which the bishop’s crosier was 
 speedily to displace the crucifix and the other regalia of St. Peter. 
 This association was and is, a king’s approver, a self-condemning 
 evidence against the fitness of the church for the wants of Ireland : 
 with this society, the zealous churchman, almost forgetting his own 
 episcopal ordination, and the unconsecrated and unauthorized hands 
 by which dissenting ministers had been designated to their office, 
 
40 
 
 did yet urge and implore the junction and co-operation of the pole- 
 mical Presbyterian and talented Independent. 
 
 Need I adduce yet again the episcopal and lordly patronage and 
 high church smiles bestowed upon the London Hibernian School So- 
 ciety, and their zealous advocacy, though of recent display, in aid of 
 the Kildare-place Schools, as corroborative testimony of their own 
 conviction and predominating fear, that the church either has not done 
 what it should have done, or that it is not adequate for the onerous 
 duties imposed upon a legalized establishment ? Let the lordly 
 advocates of things as they are say, Would it be humane to continue 
 such an order, and entrust to such functionaries, for any further pro- 
 bation, the revenues of an impoverished country, and the religious 
 services of an alienated people ? Is more time necessary to prove 
 that the Church of England has not been adapted to the state or 
 wants of Ireland ? It was enacted by authority of parliament, 
 “ that after a specified time, such a creed shall be believed, and such 
 a rubric used, by all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, who shall con- 
 tinue to enjoy the emoluments and revenues of the Church, and do 
 the duty ; and those who refuse to do these things, shall be ejected 
 from their benefices, and others put in their place.” This was, 
 surely, the vanity of legislation, and we are called to endure the vex- 
 ation of spirit which is its consequence. The manner in which the 
 ecclesiastical system by law established has operated, may be esti- 
 mated from facts which have been submitted to the public, not by 
 the controversial statements of enemies, nor even by the declama- 
 tions of parliamentary or political leaders, on the side of government 
 or of the protestant party, but by the solicitation and reception of 
 subscriptions for the suffering clergy in Ireland. It is notorious 
 that resistance to tithe has proceeded so far, as] not merely to render 
 the church obnoxious to public odium, but also to set the power of 
 the executive at defiance in most parts of the country ; and it is only 
 wonderful that a people actuated by the worldly principles of popery, 
 and influenced by popular leaders whose moral affections are so lax 
 and latitudinarian, should have continued to honour law with obedi- 
 ence, and the administrators of it with submission, in conformity 
 with the support of the established church. But besides resistance 
 to tithe, there is a deep-rooted and wide-spread antipathy among 
 the mass to the supposed principles and interests of the protestant 
 church ; and it is the perfect conviction of the people, that were it 
 not for the legal enactments and the military protection of the 
 government, all other systems would give way to Romanism. This 
 
41 
 
 impression rests not with Roman catholics alone; so little confi- 
 dence do the high church party repose in their own establishment. 
 It is a strong fact, that though most of the land in Ireland is prima- 
 rily the hereditary possession of protestant nobles and gentlemen, 
 and though from the fruits of the earth are the revenues of the 
 church derived, yet there has been such encreasing difficulty in rea- 
 lizing those revenues as to render parliamentary statutes as a dead 
 letter; so unpopular is the system, so ineffective the principle, of an 
 ecclesiastical establishment. 
 
 But we have alluded to another fact. What would be said of the 
 dissenters in England, and the efficiency of their ecclesiastical 
 government, if at this day, without legislative exaction, without terri- 
 torial revenue, without parliamentary grants, though compelled to 
 contribute their quota of support to the law church, they were unable 
 to support their several ministers, their places of worship, and their 
 seminaries of ministerial instruction : if in their distress they should 
 apply to Christians elsewhere, should visit Scotland, depicting the 
 circumstances of their most eminent, their long-tried and truly effi- 
 cient men, as so afflicting, so impoverished, so helpless, that they 
 could not subsist, nor remain in the field of labour any longer, unless 
 a subscription were liberally maintained, and regularly transmitted, 
 to support these worthy servants of the public ? But episcopacy 
 has now been established by law, and sustained in Ireland by 
 national bounty and legal exaction, for more than three hundred 
 years, and what has been the end of these things? That the protes- 
 lants who have been made or kept such by the establishment of a 
 national faith, and w'ho are generally the most wealthy inhabitants 
 of the land, have either not felt sufficiently interested in the perma- 
 nence of those labourers among them, or have deemed their pecu- 
 niary demands so exorbitant, or so beyond their means, that they 
 have permitted applications to benevolence and compassion to be 
 made to English churchmen, — aye, and English dissenters too, — 
 for the maintenance of their most distinguished clergy. Individuals 
 in Ireland have, doubtless, rendered contribution to such a fund ; but 
 no effort of the community, no liberality of the flock, no return of 
 carnal things to those who have ministered in spiritual things, has 
 marked the recent distresses of the suffering churchmen. Will the 
 lovers of a national establishment never open their eyes ? Is not 
 the workman worthy of his hire ? “ Who goeth a warfare at his 
 
 own charges ; who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit 
 thereof?” Shall we conclude that the church establishment is no 
 
42 
 
 soil for a vineyard ? Shall we say that legalized episcopacy is no 
 generous warfare, and that the workmen of the church of England 
 do not carry their labour to an open market ? 
 
 Some scenes have indeed been exhibited, of a most anomalous 
 character, in recent struggles. If we were to read, in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, that for three whole months Silas or Timotheus re- 
 mained at Ephesus, or at Corinth, endeavouring to perform the ser- 
 vice, the military daily under arms, prepared to be called out for 
 his protection, while upon “the reading desk, beside the prayer 
 books, a pair of loaded pistols” lay ready for use, during the hours 
 appointed for devotion, we should find something like a precedent 
 for the precautionary measures deemed necessary for protecting the 
 clergy of the established church in certain parts of Ireland which 
 could be named, not long ago. If, again, we should read that 
 Titus, “the son of the Very Reverend the Dean of L — /’ had 
 received the appointment, first of a Curacy, and then of a Living, 
 under the auspices of his father, in Crete ; that he found the tithes 
 not well paid, but had, with a determination to enforce them, taken 
 very summary measures, under the advice of Paul, the Archbishop 
 of that Province, — that, in consequence, he could not go through 
 any of the villages except accompanied by a posse comitatus of 
 praetorian police, armed and mounted, — that he protected his house 
 by loaded fire-arms in every room, — that the door of his green- 
 house, leading into his parlour or drawing room, w'as secured by 
 spring bolts, concealed behind sliding bricks in the wall, — and that 
 in consequence of his rigour, he had received the public thanks of 
 his Arch-Diocesan, and acquired for himself the enjoyment of the 
 next presentation, which his father, the Very Reverend the Dean, 
 could exchange with the said Bishop, — we should find apostolic 
 authority for such measures, as, not many months since, marked 
 the career of an aspiring ecclesiastic not a hundred miles out of the 
 county of Kildare, or fifty miles from the city of Dublin. 
 
 During the month of April, yearly, there is a gathering together 
 of the clergy interested in benevolent and religious institutions, and 
 who thereby acquire a supposed title to the designation “evan- 
 gelical.” Within the last thirty years this class has greatly in- 
 creased, compared with their numbers before that period. Perhaps 
 in all the country they may amount to four hundred such clergy- 
 men ; the greater proportion consists of young men, and few of 
 them have attained to any rank higher than Curates ; there are two 
 or three Deans, and two or three Archdeacons, a few beneficed 
 
43 
 
 clergy, an Archbishop, and four or five of the Fellows of T. C. D. 
 The evangelical doctrines are professedly held, but not very clearly 
 understood, and very defectively expounded, by most of these men. 
 We would except a Singer and an O’Brien, a Roe and a Lloyd. 
 Many of them are ultra millenarians, and not a few of them have 
 drunk deeply into the spirit of The Morning Watch, and even the 
 fanaticism of Trving, concerning the person of Christ, the doctrines 
 of redemption, and the personal reign. There is not much vigour of 
 intellect, or depth of theological learning, or very extensive erudition 
 among them, nor does their ministration seem calculated to enlarge 
 the minds of their hearers, to elevate the tone of religious sentiments, 
 or liberalize the affections of the people towards those who differ 
 from them in politics or religion. While it is a fact, that the most 
 independent and useful ministers of that church have found a refuge 
 and a resting place in institutional chaplaincies, and these inde- 
 pendently of episcopal patronage. 
 
 The character of the church laity, apart from politics or the esta- 
 blishment, is exhibited in profusion, benevolence, and equipage — a 
 hospitable, light-hearted, and superficial race. The proportion of 
 the people, adherents to the Church of England in Ireland, has 
 decidedly decreased in the census taken from time to time. Any 
 success that has followed evangelical effort has been reaped, not in 
 consequence of clerical labours or parochial ministrations, but rather 
 the result of uncanonical and interdicted exertions, or of the various 
 apparatus independent of the law church. So apparent is the 
 stationary or retrogressive aspect of protestantism in the country, 
 and so weak or unsuccessful have been the efforts for extension, 
 that even good ohurchmen are not merely expressing their disap- 
 pointment and chagrin, but are beginning to suspect that there exist 
 somewhere impediments or obstructions which are to the dishonour 
 of their system : they remember the Roman adage, Magna est 
 veritas et prevalebit, but they do not perceive that the system to 
 which they belong prevails — the triumph is all on the opposite side. 
 Let them examine the matter more closely ; perhaps they may dis- 
 cover something in state connexion and the control possessed by 
 secular authority over the appointment of clerical functionaries — the 
 world determining and providing for the church. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IRELAND, 
 AS IT IS. 
 
 Besides the Protestant Reformed Church, I have referred to 
 other communities in Ireland ; and, perhaps it may serve a good 
 cause, if I proceed to survey the moral statistics of this country, as 
 exhibited in the sectarian divisions of the people, in the respective 
 supplies of instruction for the several denominations, and in the 
 relative proportions of those who are receiving elementary or scho- 
 lastic education. 
 
 The people of Ireland are, three out of every four, attached to 
 the Church of Rome ; upwards of six millions are nominally sub- 
 ject to the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops and other clergy of 
 that communion ; receiving the sacraments from them, submitting 
 to their direction in matters of faith and practice, and leaving in 
 their hands the government of the Church. A chief part of their 
 clerical duties consists in ceremonial performances; the presentation 
 of prayers and masses in the Latin tongue ; the celebration of mar- 
 riage, baptism, and confirmation; and the administration of absolu- 
 tion to the penitent, extreme unction to the dying, and the eucharist. 
 They enjoin upon the people that they must not examine for them- 
 selves the grounds of belief, but should implicitly embrace v/hat the 
 Church believes; they deny the right of private judgment, and 
 consequently do not appeal to the understanding, nor labour to 
 enlighten the mind on debateable points of doctrine. The priest 
 does not, except on great or peculiar occasions, direct, by a length- 
 ened discourse, instructions to the people ; and when he speaks, it 
 is rather by hortatory address, than didactic instructions, enforcing 
 some point of canonical obedience, rather than some principle of 
 faith, or some argumentative illustration of Christian doctrines. The 
 clergy command, the people obey ; the priest dictates, the flock 
 implicitly receive ; the Church is the depository of the divine will ; 
 the pontiff' is the vicegerent of heaven ; and, by his priests, the 
 
45 
 
 universal keeper of unenlightened conscience, and disposer of super- 
 stitious fears. 
 
 The adherents of the Roman catholic church place great virtue in 
 their ritual and the ceremonies of their service ; but indeed they do 
 not much exceed the protestants of the episcopal communion in their 
 attachment to the celebration of their liturgy — a compilation chiefly 
 composed of translations from the Roman breviary and missal : the 
 antiquity of origin in the former, the quaintness of phraseology in 
 the other, and the ceremonial and formal exactness of both, being, 
 as the several admirers fondly imagine, most clear and irrefragable 
 evidence of the purity and apostolical character of their churches, 
 and of their precedence of all other denominations. It will suit 
 both parties to quote the language of an admired Archbishop, on 
 the superior claims of such performances. “ If it be that the purity 
 of religion and worship is the crown and glory of a people ; and 
 therefore, on the other side, that their deepest stain of dishonour 
 and vileness is the vitiating of religion with human devices ; then to 
 contend for the preservation or the reformation of it is noble, and 
 worthy of a Christian. It is for the crown of Jesus Christ, which is 
 likewise a crown of glory and diadem of beauty to them, he being 
 
 their head Labour, then, for constancy in this work ; let no 
 
 man take your crown from you : you know how busy the emissaries 
 of the Church of Rome have been to take it from us ; or, at least, 
 to pick the diamonds out of it, and put in false, counterfeit ones in 
 their places : I mean, they stole away the power of religion, and 
 filled up the room with shadows and fopperies of their own devising. 
 It is the vanity of that church, to think they adorn the ^worship of 
 God when they dress it up with splendour in her service, which, 
 though some magnify so much, yet may most truly be called a 
 glistening slavery and captivity. Then is she truly free, and wears 
 her crown, when the ordinances of God are according to his own 
 appointment. It is vanity in man, I say, when they dress it up 
 with a multitude of gaudy ceremonies, and make it the smallest part 
 of itself; whereas, indeed, its true glory consists not in pomp, but 
 in purity and simplicity. In the Apocalypse, xii., we find the 
 church, under the name of a woman, richly attired indeed, but her 
 ornaments be all heavenly — the sun her clothing, and her crown of 
 twelve stars; needs she then borrow sublunary glory P No: she 
 treads upon it; the moon is under her feet. There is another 
 woman, indeed, in the same book, arrayed in purple and scarlet, 
 decked with gold and precious stones, and having a golden cup in 
 
46 
 
 her hand ; but that golden cup is full of abominations and filthiness, 
 and she herself [is called] the mother of abominations. — Apoc.xvii. 4. 
 The natural man judges according to his reach; but to a spiritual 
 eye there is a most genuine beauty in the service of God, and in the 
 government of his house : and when they are nearest to the rule — 
 the word of God, then is it that the Lord himself is the crown and 
 diadem of his church.”* 
 
 If I am not misinformed, there are in this church four archbishops, 
 and twenty-four bishops, while each prelate is assisted in the govern- 
 ment of the diocese by a vicar-general and dean : there are also 
 chapters, and members of them who are dignitaries ; colleges, and 
 professorships ; orders of brotherhood, and monastic superiors ; se- 
 culars and regular clergy ; parish -priests and curates. I have been 
 assured, that in most of the town-parishes, beside the priest who is 
 rector, there are generally a plurality of curates, sometimes three or 
 four, causing the excess in the number of curates over the number of 
 parish priests to be three curates for two rectors. There are some 
 unions of parishes, as also of bishoprics, in the Church of Rome, as 
 well as in the Established Church, but they are not so frequent in 
 the former as in the latter. Supposing that of the number, 2,450 
 parishes in the church legalized by act of parliament, 450 had 
 merged into union in the Romish Church, we have 2,000 parish 
 rectors, and 3,000 parish curates ; in all for Ireland — 
 
 Secular Clergy 5,000 
 
 Archbishops 4 
 
 Bishops 24 
 
 Deans 28 
 
 Vicars General 28 
 
 Professors in Colleges, &c. . . 50 
 
 Regular Clergy 1,000 
 
 This is supposed to be the total of Roman catholic clergy, 6134 
 The monks, friars, and other orders of brotherhood, are compre- 
 hended among the regular clergy. I believe it may be known at 
 Rome precisely, how many of the various classes are employed in 
 Ireland ; but I do not pretend to give more than general and sum- 
 mary information on the point, since my enquiries have entirely 
 failed to afford me satisfaction. It is of importance, however, to 
 recollect — 
 
 1st, That whatever be the number, they are employed among a 
 population of six millions. If we suppose our computation to be 
 correct, 6134 clergy gives something less than a thousand of a 
 flock for each official in the Romish Church ; while we have in the 
 
 Archbishop Leighton. 
 
47 
 
 Church of England a clergyman for every 210 parishioners in the 
 aggregate. 
 
 4dly. That adding these two classes together, and their flocks to- 
 gether, we have two clergymen for a smaller number than every 
 1,200 souls : a priest-ridden country is Ireland surely ! 
 
 3dly. That while all classes are constrained to contribute their 
 proportion to support the Protestant clergy, who have each 210 
 persons, the Roman Catholics voluntarily pay for the support of 
 their ministers also, excepting the small sum paid by parliamentary 
 grant for Maynooth. 
 
 4thly. Leaving the comparative sums paid to these functionaries, 
 and the total amount, to be considered hereafter ; as also what the 
 working clergy of the one, and the working clergy of the other, re- 
 ceive ; it may now be observed that it is as the Roman Catholic priest 
 performs his services that he is paid. Pie must exorcise, apply the 
 oil, salt, &c., and the water of baptism ; he must give absolution, 
 administer extreme unction, and attend the burials of the dead, &c. 
 before he can receive the dues for such work. 
 
 It has not been because the tree of Protestantism was planted 
 under the shade of parliamentary legislation, that it has stood as- 
 saults, and endures, till this day, the rough wind of popular indig- 
 nation, and the lashing of the noisy waves : the tumult of the peo- 
 ple would have long since destroyed such a plantation, but, because, 
 amid all its abuses or defects, the seed of the kingdom, the pure 
 word of God, was possessed by it, and here and there was scattered 
 by it among the people, a special Providence has sustained it, and 
 the Ruler of Nations has said, “ Destroy it not, for a blessing is in 
 it.” While the Romish Church has stood, partly from the antipa- 
 thy that the people have to the purer and more spiritual doctrines 
 of the Protestant religion, their extreme ignorance of truth, and des- 
 titution of general knowledge, partly through the sympathy and 
 deep-rooted affection with which we grow up to our fathers’ religion ; 
 in part, also, its popularity is to be ascribed to the vicious policy of 
 a persecuting monopoly, in favour of the Established Church ; and 
 in part to the zealous efforts and interested cunning of an indefatiga- 
 ble and isolated priesthood — an anti-social apparatus, powerful 
 only for the accomplishment of despotism, and the maintenance of 
 error ; and whose devices have not been met by equal exertion, pa- 
 tience, and zeal, on the part of the reformed clergy. 
 
 It is remarked, by observers in society, that the clergy in the 
 Romish church, since the triumph of liberal principles has placed 
 
48 
 
 them on a civil equality with other sects of the people, have exhibited 
 greater attention to dress and external appearance, are more fre- 
 quently seen in promenades, and in social intercourse, indulge more 
 in luxuries enjoyed by protestant divines, in carriages, horses, &c., 
 and vie with other members of society in attainments and influence. 
 And why should they not P It is well they should come into mingled 
 intercourse, and that the interchange of civility should smooth 
 down the asperities of polemical hostility ; while those hitherto 
 deemed their antagonists would do well to make the amende honor- 
 able. And instead of repining at their advancement, and being 
 jealous because of the prominence of the priests in society, they 
 should recognize it as the effect of a new impulse given to the 
 energies of the nation, by the change in civil and political liberty ; 
 and which is only remarkable because of the unnatural order of 
 things existing before. 
 
 The rapid increase of influence acquired by the Roman Catholics 
 in the community is not to be dreaded. It is no proof that the 
 Church of Rome, in Ireland, is becoming stronger as an ecclesias- 
 tical body ; the fact is, rather, that as the members, so the clergy, 
 of that Church, becoming more numerous by means of population, 
 more intelligent and more wealthy by the general advancement 
 of society, are acquiring their appropriate position among their 
 neighbours. And this has been rendered more apparent from the 
 depressions to which, as victims of a persecuting religious tyranny, 
 they were formerly exposed. It has been suggested by a very 
 shrewd writer, as a principle of political economy, that the more 
 near to equality the members of one church rise in political influ- 
 ence with the members of predominating churches, the more is 
 that church in danger of losing its distinguishing features, and its 
 very being as a separate body. If this be true generally, the 
 Church of Rome will prove no exception to the rule : and we only 
 wish to see the clergy of that church coming forward in literary 
 competition, taking an interest in the progress of general learning, 
 and encouraging the growth of intelligence, knowledge, and scien- 
 tific researches. I do not say it from any desire to malign or mis- 
 represent, but I believe the works of research, in history or philo- 
 sophy, in theology or politics, which have emanated from the Irish 
 Roman Catholic priesthood, are few and far between, and not 
 always like angel visitants. Let them advance to the generous 
 ambition of literary eminence, and seek to stand approved as the 
 learned and useful members of society, exerting their undoubted 
 
49 
 
 powers for the general advancement of their fellow men, and the 
 diffusion of useful knowledge, for the cultivation of letters, the 
 discovery of useful plans, and the discharge of mutual kindness 
 and good-will. 
 
 The influence of the Romish clergy is great among the people, 
 and it chiefly arises from the, too prevalent, superstitious belief, 
 that if the rites of the church be not administered to the dying and 
 for the dead, which the priest has the power of withholding, there 
 can be no security for happiness in a future state. To the clerical 
 order is entrusted the entire disposal of the spiritual interests of the 
 people ; a prerogative which they hesitate not to apply as a most 
 powerful weapon. To the terrors of this frightful engine, among 
 an ignorant people, must we ascribe the servile adherence of the 
 humbler classes, especially of the rural peasantry, to their church, 
 and their implicit compliance with the priest’s dictates in eccle- 
 siastical discipline. When he chooses to call a chapel, though 
 sometimes a reluctant, yet always a numerous, attendance is 
 secured, and it is by this means that he can exercise a despotic 
 influence upon the community among whom he has been placed. 
 Chapel-calls are of frequent occurrence. If a priest and one of 
 his flock have quarrelled, as sometimes they do, even to blows — if 
 any delay has been manifested in the payment of the dues — if 
 any venturous mind has dared to think for himself, and to read 
 some interdicted publication — if any latitudinarian exhibition of 
 hostile politics has been made, then the exposure of a chapel-call 
 is threatened and enforced, when all the neighbours are informed 
 of the delinquency, the offender is named, and, it may be, de- 
 nounced to present penance and atonement, or future obloquy and 
 punishment. They carry on a system of espionage, easily con- 
 ducted by the practice of auricular confession, when, it may be, 
 a neighbour becomes informant, or a servant exposes his or her 
 employer to priestly intrigue or denunciation. In this manner, 
 much that is said in the convivial freeness of a dinner-party — 
 much that passes in the ear and closet is repeated and proclaimed 
 from the altar, or in the market-place. The instances wherein 
 such oppression can be fearlessly resisted among an ignorant 
 people are few ; and though sometimes the priest has been suc- 
 cessfully opposed, yet the veneration in which the hierarchy wish 
 the priesthood to be held by the people, induces even higher and 
 more prudent officials to wink at excesses, and to maintain the 
 cause of the offender. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 The training through which the Roman Catholic clergy pass, 
 in their way to the office which they hold, will serve to illustrate 
 what are their qualifications, and what influence they are likely 
 to exert among the people. It had long been the practice of 
 candidates for priesthood in the Romish Church to travel to foreign 
 countries, and sojourn at the universities in Spain, France, or 
 Italy, where the requisite attainments might be acquired. Some 
 of the most affluent or aspiring continue to do so still; so that 
 perhaps a hundred and fifty students for the Roman Catholic 
 church in Ireland, may be now resident at different colleges on 
 the continent, at the Irish college in Paris, at Salamanca, and 
 Rome. Various seminaries have from time to time been esta- 
 blished in Ireland, for educating young men who desired to enter 
 the church; Carlow, Kilkenny, Tuam, Waterford, and Wexford, 
 have been selected for the purpose. At these places, it is pre- 
 sumed, there are about two hundred students now receiving edu- 
 cation, the greatest number being attracted to Carlow by the 
 celebrity of Dr. Doyle. In 1795, the college of Maynooth was 
 established by an Act of the Irish Parliament; two Acts were 
 subsequently passed, the first in 1800, and the latter in 1808, 
 extending and describing the privileges of this institution. The 
 students who are now admitted within its walls, to the enjoyment 
 of its advantages, are exclusively designed for the Romish priest- 
 hood. The number of offices filled by the servants of this esta- 
 blishment, from the President to the Apothecary, are nineteen ; 
 including professorships of Dogmatic Theology and Moral Theo- 
 logy ; of Biblical Literature, Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics ; of 
 Rhetoric, the Belles Lettres, and Languages; Deans, the Li- 
 brarian, and Secretary, & c. The number of students, in 1827, 
 was about four hundred ; some increase in subsequent years we 
 believe has occurred. At the former period, one hundred and ten 
 were pensioners, twenty were bursars, and two hundred and fifty 
 were supported on the establishment; besides a few who had 
 been elected to something like scholarships. The literary qualifi- 
 cations for admission are measured by proficiency in the common 
 Latin and Greek classics, such as Caesar and Sallust, Virgil and 
 Horace, Cicero and Juvenal, Tacitus and Livy, Lucian and Xeno- 
 phon, Homer and Demosthenes. The first two years are passed 
 in classes for Humanity, Rhetoric, and Belles Lettres, accom- 
 panied by catechetical instruction in a work called Christian 
 Doctrine. In the class for Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics, to 
 
51 
 
 which the students proceed in the third year, a Class Book is pro- 
 vided, in a portion of which the pupil prepares himself each day, and 
 this the professor illustrates, by a reference to various authors, — 
 it is not said that the students have indiscriminate access to these 
 authors, — Thomas Aquinas, Bossuet on Universal History, Clarke 
 on the Being and Attributes of God, Malebranche’s Search for 
 Truth, Beattie on Truth, Locke, Reid’s Enquiry, Blackstone’s 
 Commentary, and Paley’s Natural Theology and Moral Philo- 
 sophy. The Professors are not likely to impart much knowledge 
 to their auditors through the medium employed, Latin being used 
 in addresses to the students. The Cambridge Course of Mathe- 
 matics and Natural Philosophy (Geometry and Trigonometry 
 excepted) occupies the fourth year. The pupils are then trans- 
 ferred to the Divinity Class, the course of which engages them 
 for three years. Nine Lectures are delivered each week, every 
 lecture being an hour in delivery ; two hours are weekly spent in 
 Lectures on Scripture History. The Lectures form consecutive 
 parts of distinct and independent treatises, and constitute ten 
 volumes, five in Dogmatic Theology and five in Moral Theology. 
 The first five volumes are the compilation of Delahogue, a native 
 of Paris, and Doctor of the Sorbonne ; the second five were pre- 
 pared by another French ecclesiastic, M. Bailly, and were printed 
 in Paris. 
 
 It is asserted that the doctrines inculcated in Delahogue’s 
 Compilation accord with those of the Sorbonne, and that 
 the instructions generally given in the divinity classes at May- 
 nooth do not materially differ from those given in the University 
 of Paris. A particular chapter of the Vulgate is regularly marked 
 out, and the students are required to be prepared to analyze and 
 explain it. A half-hour weekly is spent in hearing the students 
 comment on the Gospels and Epistles for the following Sundays. 
 The Scripture Lectures are confined to those deemed the more 
 difficult portions of the New Testament, and the Class-book used 
 is the Commentary of Menochius. There is a class of Hebrew 
 scholars, composed of thirteen or fourteen — a small selection from 
 among four hundred students for the priesthood ! ! There is also 
 a class for the Irish language ; it is probably much better attended, 
 but chiefly by students from Connaught and Munster. It is stated 
 that the divinity students have access, during four hours of five 
 days in the week, to the library of the college. The students are 
 not at liberty to purchase books for their private use, but under 
 
52 
 
 specific restrictions and regulations. A list of works offered for 
 sale by the college bookseller to the students, must first be sub- 
 mitted to the inspection of the proper authorities ! ! It is the 
 duty of the Dean to examine the books which each student brings 
 with him into the college, and it is a general rule that none shall 
 afterwards be introduced, without being submitted to the Dean’s 
 inspection ; and if any student shall read any book prohibited by 
 the President or Dean, he is, by the statutes of the college, liable 
 to expulsion ! ! It is a part of the Dean’s duly to examine occa- 
 sionally what books are in the students’ possession. The students 
 rise at five in the summer, and at six in the winter months. They 
 assemble in the chapel for morning prayer, after which they 
 pursue their studies until eight, at which hour they attend mass. 
 The day is spent in a prescribed routine of reading, eating, lec- 
 tures, and recreation ; during only four hours are they allowed to 
 speak to each other. At nine they assemble for night prayer, 
 after which they retire to their respective rooms, and are required 
 to be in bed at ten o’clock. After the night prayer, when the 
 students retire to their rooms, silence is strictly enjoined until 
 after the morning prayer of the ensuing day. An ordination is 
 held annually at Maynooth, when such persons only are ordained 
 as are presented for that purpose by the college. The students 
 usually remain in the institution until they are upon the point of 
 receiving priests’ orders. The general rule is, to give the order 
 of Sub-deacon to such as have finished the first year of their 
 studies in the Divinity Class : to give that of Deacon to those 
 who have finished the second year ; and that of Priesthood when 
 they have completed the course. 
 
 It seems as if the system pursued at Maynooth is not so effi- 
 cacious in rubbing off the excrescences of a mean or subordinate 
 origin as foreign travel and education abroad are supposed to have 
 been. The contrast which is frequently made is greatly to the dis- 
 advantage of the modern and home-made priest. Superior advan- 
 tages must have been enjoyed in other countries or other colleges. 
 The Commissioners of Irish Education Enquiry say — “An opinion 
 has prevailed, that the free education which the bounty of the Legis- 
 lature has provided at Maynooth has both induced and enabled 
 persons of a much lower class to enter into the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood, than those who formerly filled the ministerial office ; 
 and who, without such aid, could not have prepared themselves 
 for holy orders. We collect, however, from the evidence, that 
 
53 
 
 this effect has not been produced ; and that the cost of the pre- 
 vious education, the expenses of admission, and the charge which 
 still attends the course of instruction at Maynooth, accompanied 
 by other regulations, adopted by the Roman Catholic Bishops, 
 have prevented this result.” 
 
 It is believed, by those who watch the progress of events in the 
 Romish communion, that there is a small number of puritans 
 growing up in the bosom of that church ; and that here and there 
 priests will be found, who practise for themselves the reading of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, and do not discountenance among their 
 flock a similar pursuit, provided it be followed unostentatiously; 
 while others have advanced further, and barely tolerate the mum- 
 mery they are called to perform. It is in the growth and increase 
 of such a class in the Romish church, that the well-wishers of 
 this country may place their hopes ; while the policy of such men 
 may be most efficient, if conscientiously they can exert their influ- 
 ence among their own body to diffuse the portion of intelligence 
 acquired by themselves, without forming any alliance with other 
 denominations, and especially with the dominant Establishment. 
 
 As I extended my wanderings, and added to my facilities of 
 knowing this people, the more convinced was I of the great bane 
 to this country which its ecclesiastical establishment has proved ; 
 not merely for what it has done, but what it has professed to 
 undertake and failed to accomplish — this I speak of the Law 
 Church. The church so long outlawed has not come behind in 
 its unhappy influence upon the moral state of the community. 
 The men who bear office in this latter communion are just as 
 worldly-minded as are the most worldly and ambitious of the for- 
 mer: they have no sons or sons-in-law to provide for, but they have 
 nephews and nieces , and other relations ; and these most frequently 
 are among the peasantry, as tenants and tithe-payers, or even in 
 a lower grade of society. So far, again, as they themselves are con- 
 cerned, they are as the eunuchs of eastern courts, or the janizaries 
 of Constantinople; or, more properly, like one of their own 
 countrymen, who could say, when his habitation was in danger, 
 " If you burn the house, I am but a lodger.” They have no 
 ostensible link of connexion with futurity — they have no sympathy 
 with a coming age. They receive, I know, much larger revenues 
 than the non-beneficed clergy of the establishment, and they are 
 far more numerous ; while their duties are comprised in a formal 
 routine, which neither reaches the head nor the heart of this 
 
54 
 
 people ; neither improves their mind nor affections. Hence the 
 most cruel atrocities have been committed by depredators who had 
 just come from mass, and who, in the midst of their murders* 
 would cross themselves, and even call in the clergy to perform 
 the last offices for their dying victims. 
 
 The exertion of the priests in political matters is latterly assum- 
 ing a more palpable form, but perhaps it will not prove more 
 effective than when it was made in secret; at least, some doubt 
 may rest upon its permanence, when we reckon upon the collision 
 of separate and individual interests, which naturally occur in all 
 communities of men. Some of them, indeed not a few, have 
 been running rampant in electoral contests, but it has been to the 
 great apparent annoyance of more prudent and exalted personages 
 in the fraternity. Those who were so active, not merely exerted 
 themselves in their several parishes, but appeared at the poll, with 
 the design not only to talk, to watch, and exercise a moral influence, 
 but to drag the elector, if need be, to vote contrary to his own 
 desire, and choice, or supposed interest. They proceeded still 
 further, to beat with their fists such as threatened to be more 
 refractory, and even to wrestle with the voters, till the clerical 
 combatants were seen in the mud of the streets, striving to return 
 their favoured candidate. The most prudent and zealous Pro- 
 testant should not regret such exhibitions, except for the sake of 
 the man himself. The sober, thinking Roman Catholic, who did 
 see the forcible zeal of his priests, did not leave the scene with 
 an increased reverence for the priesthood of his church, or an 
 exalted estimate of the men who so debased themselves. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 SOME PASSAGES IN THE HISTORY OF PRESBY- 
 TERIANISM IN IRELAND. 
 
 We are assured that Queen Elizabeth so far succeeded in the 
 policy which she adopted towards Ireland, that there remained in 
 the country no insurgent who had not obtained or sued for mercy; 
 while many Irish exiles, filled with malignant resentment towards 
 the English, had been driven to the continent, and were trained to 
 war in the armies of Spain. This policy, added to the conspira- 
 cies and commotions which had previously prevailed, had, when 
 James I. succeeded to the English throne, depopulated the north- 
 ern counties, embraced in the province of Ulster: and rebellions 
 and insurrections were made the pretext for escheating to the 
 crown that vast tract of country, the counties of Donegal, Tyrone, 
 Derry, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Armagh, containing 500,000 acres 
 of fertile and well-wooded land. The panegyrists of James say, 
 not only that he ordered surveys, pointed out the sites where 
 towns, settlements, forts, &c. should be constructed ; delineated the 
 character of the Irish chieftains, and how they should be treated ; 
 but also that he directed and ordained the measures by which the 
 land was to be divided — among emigrants from Scotland and 
 England, who should be denominated undertakers ; among others, 
 who, holding military or civil offices under the crown, had served 
 in Ireland, and should be distinguished as servitors; or among 
 those who still retained the rank of chieftains or captains with the 
 native Irish : that the aborigines of the soil should be removed 
 from the hills and fastnesses, and settled in the open country, 
 where husbandry and the arts should be taught them, a fixed habi- 
 tation secured, and plunder and robbery punished and prevented. 
 It has been affirmed, that James not merely accomplished all this, 
 but that by such arts he introduced into Ulster humanity and jus- 
 tice, among a people who had ever been buried in the most pro- 
 
56 
 
 found barbarism, Perhaps the year 1641 was a proof of the truth 
 of all this eulogy ! 
 
 This wise king further decreed, that the British adventurers, the 
 undertakers, should have assigned to them the places of greatest 
 strength and command ; and to the servitors he allotted stations of 
 the greatest danger to themselves, and greatest advantage to the 
 crown ; while, though he cordially hated the austere and repub- 
 lican character of Presbyterianism, yet as the plantations of Ulster 
 were sufficiently removed from his own august presence, he granted 
 the indulgence of Kirk ministers to Scotch settlers. The Corpora- 
 tion of London accepted of large grants in Derry, and covenanted 
 to expend £20,000 in territorial improvements. Londonderry 
 and Coleraine were the chief seats of their numerous colonists. 
 They stipulated to place only Protestant settlers in their planta- 
 tions, but it was more easy to induce the persecuted Puritans to 
 abandon a land burdened with the devices of king-craft and prela- 
 tic domination, than to procure parochial clergy of the Established 
 Church. The beneficed clergy of the Church of England were 
 generally at ease in the possession of their preferments, and would 
 not engage in such a hazardous undertaking. The Londoners, 
 therefore, sent over Puritan ministers, who found this an asylum 
 for conscience, and a hiding-place from the persecutions to effect 
 conformity, so rigorously enforced then against the scrupulous and 
 enlightened dissentients from established usages and unsound 
 principles in England. 
 
 The Scots, in consequence of their vicinity to that province of 
 Ireland, transported numerous colonies ; they brought their na- 
 tional, industrious, and less modish habits with them ; and being 
 Presbyterians, and accompanied by their Kirk ministers, where 
 they settled they formed their churches after the model of Geneva, 
 and established the same simplicity of worship. There was much 
 of voluntary conformity between them and the Puritans. Ten 
 ministers, three of them English Puritans, and seven Scotch Pres- 
 byterians, settled as pastoral labourers in this region ; with them 
 the bishops of the establishment (for these episcopal ecclesiastics 
 knew how to cling to the stuff, though they liked not the battle- 
 field,) mutually agreed to a compromise ; and Archbishop Usher’s 
 modified Presbyterian episcopacy, (the Bishop being the presiding 
 Presbyter) was maintained for some time. Most of the ecclesias- 
 tical edifices in the northern counties had been either destroyed in 
 the late wars, or had fallen to ruin ; the benefices were small, and 
 
57 
 
 had either been shamefully kept by the bishops in commendam, or 
 were under sequestration, or filled with ministers not less scandalous 
 than their income ; the wretched flock had been totally abandoned, 
 and for many years divine service had not been used in any parish 
 church of Ulster, except in cities and great towns. The estates of 
 the northern bishoprics had been embarrassed by the usurpation of 
 the Irish Lords, and the unsettled state of the country. But 
 scarcely had the lands been allotted to the Patentee Colonists, when 
 considerable portions of them were reclaimed by the clergy as their 
 rightful property; and James, who thought and asserted, “No 
 Bishop, no King,” ordained that all ecclesiastical lands should be 
 restored to their respective sees and churches, and that all lands 
 should be deemed ecclesiastical from which bishops had in former 
 times received rents or pensions. To provide for the inferior clergy, 
 the bishops were called upon to resign all their impropriations, and 
 relinquish the tithes paid to them out of parishes to the respective 
 incumbents. 
 
 All the Scots who received ordination in Ireland from this time 
 (1611) to the year 1642, were ordained by a conjunction of the 
 bishop of the diocese and the kirk presbyters, and an omission of 
 such passages in the established form of ordination as the candi- 
 date disliked : all of them enjoyed the churches and tithes, though 
 they remained Presbyterians, and used not the Liturgy; the 
 bishops even consulted them about affairs which concerned the 
 common interest of the church ; while some of the Presbyterians 
 were members of the convocation. They had monthly meetings at 
 Antrim, for the promotion of piety, and the extirpation of Popery. 
 Their communions were quarterly. Occasionally a Presbyterian 
 minister preached before the Judges of Assize, and an Episcopal 
 curate administered the Sacrament to them on the same day : so 
 that there was a sort of comprehension between the two parties. 
 Halcyon days for the moderate Presbyterian were these ! Things 
 continued in this way, greatly to the satisfaction of the good Pres- 
 byterians, (and they must have rapidly increased, if we believe the 
 accounts concerning their numbers during the Massacre,) till the 
 administration of Laud, who succeeded in dividing and weakening 
 the Protestant strength, and making way for the enormous growth 
 of Popery, which ushered in the deadly carnage that almost deso- 
 lated the province of Ulster in 1641 and 1642. 
 
 A fair judgment of this calamitous event cannot be formed 
 without considering it in connexion with the causes that led to it- 
 
58 
 
 Perhaps it was the result of various circumstances, which for a 
 series of years had irritated the minds of the Irish, and at last 
 raised them to a pitch of frenzy and cruelty, of the effects of which 
 we cannot read without being shocked at the recital. The Irish 
 had been pursued with a constant, rigorous, and unrelenting per- 
 secution. They had suffered extortions, imprisonments, and ex- 
 communications. Their estates had been seized under the pretext 
 of a judicial inquiry into defective titles, in which inquiry verdicts 
 against them were extorted from jurors. They had been heavily 
 taxed for their superstitions, and totally precluded the exercise of 
 their religion. Their application to Charles for a toleration had 
 been rejected, in consequence of the protestation against such in- 
 dulgence, drawn up by the Primate Usher, and twelve other 
 bishops. The Roman Catholic writers say, that “ the insurrection 
 had its origin in the injustice of the English government, which 
 had robbed them of their paternal fields, and bestowed them on 
 strangers ; and in the ecclesiastical oppression which had degraded 
 the holy faith of their ancestors, reduced their priesthood to a state 
 of beggary, and compelled them to pay tithes to men, w hose reli- 
 gion they abhorred, whose language they did not understand, and 
 who, in many parishes, had not a single individual to attend upon 
 their ministry. To free themselves from these acts of tyranny, 
 they snatched up the sword, at what they thought a favourable 
 season, in hopes of again becoming masters of their own country, 
 and gaining the ascendancy, or expelling the foreigners who had 
 unjustly assumed dominion over them. Such, they allege, were 
 the designs of the leaders, but they were defeated by the savage 
 fury of their plebeian adherents, who overleaped all bounds of re- 
 straint, and spread massacre and destruction, where their superiors 
 meant only conquest and subjugation.” 
 
 It is not at all improbable that such grievances were dwelt upon 
 and magnified by the emissaries of the queen, and that the vigor- 
 ous measures of the Long Parliament, in that comparatively dark 
 age, countenanced the apprehension, that if the king's Popish ad- 
 visers were removed, their burdens would be increased and pro- 
 longed, and instead of whips they would be chastised with scor- 
 pions; and therefore the insurrection under the Earl of Antrim 
 might have been more eagerly strengthened by the leading nobles, 
 and the massacre in Ulster be intended as an act of selfish retalia- 
 tion upon those who had disinherited* and oppressed them. Forty 
 or fifty thousand were slain in that province in a brief space, in a 
 
59 
 
 most brutal manner, without distinction of age, sex, or quality, 
 before the victims suspected their danger, or bad time to prepare 
 for their defence. In a few weeks the insurrection was so general, 
 that the insurgents took possession of whole counties, killing or 
 driving away the cattle, plundering the houses, and murdering the 
 inhabitants. Multitudes of poor distressed and bereaved persons, 
 and impoverished families, fled, naked and half-starved, first to 
 Dublin, and thence to England, with woe and despair in their 
 countenances. At length the Irish army, having ravaged all the 
 northern counties, blocked up the city of Dublin itself, with all 
 the suffering refugees who had taken sanctuary within its walls. 
 Partial relief only was afforded from England, till the parliament 
 was at leisure, from the controversy maintained by them with the 
 king, to inflict summary and severe vengeance upon the heads of 
 the ill-guided people, by the hands of the victorious and terrible 
 Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 During the years which elapsed from 1642 till 1649, the country 
 remained in a distracted state, and the Presbyterian clergy were 
 but slowly recovering from their consternation and sufferings ; but, 
 in the latter period, they seemed to have rallied a little, so as to 
 assume not only the attitude of “ the Presbytery of Belfast, ” but 
 of an authoritative community, who would deliver “ an exhortation 
 to duties relating to the covenant, unto all within our charge, and 
 to all within this kingdom.” It is not likely that in the disastrous 
 conflicts of those times, even the parochial Presbyterian clergy of 
 Ulster received their tithes and dues with much regularity ; yet it 
 seems they had a greater affection for the Stuart race and rule, 
 and the continued establishment of their system in that country, 
 than for the Long Parliament, or the authorities which followed 
 it; since they charge the Sectaries, or the existing government, with 
 “ the insolent and presumptuous practice of labouring to establish 
 by laws an universal toleration of all religions, which is an innova- 
 tion, overturning of unity in religion, and so directly repugnant to 
 the word of God, the two first articles of the solemn covenant, 
 which is the greatest wickedness in them to violate, &c.” ; and 
 while they designate “ Presbyterial government the hedge and 
 bulwark of religion,” they represent those who would “ speak evil 
 of (this) church government,” as equally guilty with those who 
 “invent damnable errors, under the specious pretence of a Gospel- 
 way and new light.” 
 
 The indignant and bitter reply given to them by the author of 
 
60 
 
 “The Defence of the People,” who had already declared that 
 Presbyter is only Priest writ large, evinced his suspicion that love 
 for truth and righteousness was not the constraining principle by 
 which they were actuated, and that zeal for their country was ab- 
 sorbed by the exercise of a meaner and narrower passion. He 
 says, in answer to the work alluded to, “ These write themselves 
 the Presbytery of Belfast, a place better known by the name of a 
 late Barony, than by the fame of these men’s doctrines or ecclesi- 
 astical deeds, whose obscurity, till now, never came to our hearing: 
 and surely we, who have neglected and passed over the like unad- 
 visedness of their fellows in other places more near us, should 
 think their representment as far beneath consideration, were it not 
 to observe, in some particulars, the sympathy, good intelligence, 
 and joint pace which they go, in the north of Ireland, with their 
 co-partnering rebels in the south ; driving on the same interest to 
 lose us that kingdom, that they may gain it themselves, or, at least, 
 share in the spoil; though the other be open enemies — these pre- 
 tended brethren. The introduction of their Manifest , out of doubt, 
 must be zealous : ‘ their duty, they say, to God and his people, 
 over whom he hath made them overseers, and for whom they must 
 give account/ What mean these men ? Is the Presbytery of 
 Belfast, a small town in Ulster, of so large extent that their voices 
 cannot serve to teach duties in the congregation which they oversee, 
 without spreading and divulging to all parts, far beyond the dio- 
 cese of Patrick or Columba, their written representation, under the 
 subtle pretence of feeding their own flock? or do they think to 
 oversee, or undertake to give an account for, all to whom their 
 paper sends greeting ? St. Paul, to the elders of Ephesus, thinks 
 it sufficient to give charge that they take lieed to themselves, and to 
 the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers ; 
 beyond those bounds, he enlarges not their commission : and 
 surely, when we put down bishops, and put up presbyters; and 
 which the most of them have made use of to enrich and exalt 
 themselves, and turn the first heel against their benefactors; we 
 did not think that one classic fraternity, so obscure and so remote, 
 should involve us and all state affairs within the censure and 
 jurisdiction of Belfast, upon pretence of overseeing their own 
 charge.” 
 
 Such observations as these do not exhibit the profound venera- 
 tion which Milton ever manifested to those whose motives he be- 
 lieved to be pure, and whose zeal he considered disinterested ; 
 
61 
 
 while his disclaimer on the part of the Parliamentary authorities 
 may convey instruction in reference to modern Church Reform. 
 “ And if it can be no way proved that the Parliament have counte- 
 nanced Popery or Papists, but have everywhere broken their tem- 
 poral power, thrown down their public superstitions, and confined 
 them to the bare enjoyment of that which is not in our reach — 
 their consciences : if they have encouraged all true ministers of the 
 gospel, that is to say, afforded them favour and protection, in all 
 places where they preached ; and although they think not money 
 or stipend to be the best encouragement of a true pastor, yet 
 therein also have not been wanting, nor intend [this is more than 
 we would require] : they doubt not then to affirm themselves, not 
 the subverters, but the maintainers and defenders of true religion ; 
 which of itself, and by consequence, is the surest and the strongest 
 subversion, not only of all false ones, but of irreligion and atheism. 
 For the weapons of that warfare , as the apostle testifies, who best 
 knew, are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down 
 of strongholds, and all reasonings, and every high thing exalted 
 against the knowledge of God, surprising every thought into the 
 obedience of Christ, and easily revenging all disobedience. What 
 minister or clergyman, that either understood his high calling, or 
 sought not to erect a secular and carnal tyranny over spiritual 
 things, would neglect this ample and sublime power conferred 
 upon him, and come a begging to the weak hand of magistracy 
 for that kind of aid which the magistrate hath no commission to 
 afford him, and in the way he seeks it, hath always been found 
 helpless and unprofitable. Neither is it unknown, or by wisest 
 men unobserved, that the church began then most apparently to 
 degenerate and go to ruin, when she borrowed of the civil power 
 more than fair encouragement and protection ; more than which 
 Christ and his apostles never required. To say, therefore, that we 
 protect and invite all false religions, with irreligion and atheism, 
 because we lend not, or rather misapply not, the temporal power 
 to help out, though in vain, the sloth, the spleen, and the insuffi- 
 ciency of churchmen, in the execution of spiritual discipline over 
 those within their charge, or those without, is an imputation that 
 may be laid upon the best regulated states and governments 
 through the world ; who have been so prudent as never to employ 
 the civil sword, further than the edge of it could reach — that is, to 
 civil offences only ; proving always against objects that were spi- 
 ritual a ridiculous weapon. Our protection, therefore, to men in 
 
62 
 
 civil matters, inoffensive, we cannot deny ; their consciences we 
 leave, as not within our cognizance, to the proper care of instruc- 
 tion, praying for them.” 
 
 On such principles as these, developed in the quotation given, 
 did the governors of Ireland proceed, till the increase of the Pres- 
 byterians emboldened them, and their attachment to the Stuart 
 family tempted them, to refuse to take the oaths to the Common- 
 wealth, to observe the fast days appointed by authority, and to 
 comply with its ordinances ; considering the Protector’s authority 
 as an unjust usurpation. Henry Cromwell, as Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, attempted to argue them into actual subjection; but he 
 could not succeed. Provoked by their refusal, he withdrew the 
 parochial support, which they had till then enjoyed. Perhaps he 
 would have gained more friends, and shewn himself more politic, 
 had he suffered them quietly to pursue their own way : by over- 
 looking their sullenness, and letting them enjoy the pleasure of 
 murmuring, he would have rendered them perfectly harmless. 
 This was indeed, generally, the policy pursued, giving no ascen- 
 dancy to any party, but promoting the welfare and seeking the 
 happiness of all ; the tranquillity of the country was maintained 
 till the restoration of the three kingdoms to the dominion and mis- 
 government of a cold-hearted, wanton, and debauched monarch, 
 who never rewarded a friend, nor forgot an enemy ; whom adver- 
 sity could not subdue, nor services make grateful ; whose God was 
 self, and whose enjoyment was indulgence and excess. This was 
 an event which the Irish Presbyterians had long desired; but 
 how sadly must their expectations have been disappointed ! they 
 were not restored to their former privileges. The Episcopal Church 
 resumed all her ancient honours ; to her clergy were transferred all 
 the tithes, even in the north ; while the Presbyterians had nearly 
 all the people, and all the labour. The royal bounty was, how- 
 ever, dispensed among them in compliance with their importunity, 
 on the principle of the unjust judge, and five or six hundred 
 pounds were distributed yearly among the Presbyterian ministers, 
 till towards the end of Charles the Second’s reign, when the bounty 
 was withdrawn. Their numbers were increased by the arbi- 
 trary and cold-blooded proceedings of Charles in Scotland ; when 
 he attempted, by tithes and dragoons, to establish Episcopacy 
 among the people of that country. If, however, the Presbyterians 
 did not pluck the rich fruit of an establishment in Ireland, they 
 
63 
 
 i 
 
 enjoyed, compared with their brethren elsewhere, the repose of 
 Eden, and the security of a strong tower. 
 
 A momentary gloom hung over the prospects of the Irish Pres- 
 bytery during James the Second’s infatuated struggle, but the 
 cloud passed away; and William, Prince of Orange, whose prin- 
 ciples are caricatured or inverted by the Irish Orangists, shewed 
 that respect for the rights of conscience which yielded to his sub- 
 jects the liberty of worshipping God according to their own judg- 
 ment, and that liberality in distributing the bounty of the public 
 purse which bestowed on the Presbyterians in the north of Ireland 
 £1200 a-year towards their support. Letters patent passed the 
 great seal of Ireland, granting this sum to seven ministers during 
 pleasure, for the use of the ministers of the north of Ireland, to be 
 paid quarterly out of any of the revenues of the kingdom. On the 
 decease of William, the Trustees of the Royal Bounty petitioned 
 Queen Anne to renew the grant, to which she acceded, under the 
 following limitations. “ Upon trust nevertheless that the money 
 which shall be received thereupon, shall be distributed to and 
 amongst the said Presbyterian ministers, or such of them, and in 
 such proportions, as shall be appointed from time to time, in lists 
 to be approved of and signed by our Lieutenant Deputy, or other 
 chief governor or governors, of our said kingdom of Ireland for the 
 time being.” In the reign of Queen Anne, the House of Lords, 
 spiritual and temporal, complained that the northern Presbyterians 
 had set up a meeting-house, and so disturbed the peace of the 
 town of Drogheda, where there had been no such place of worship 
 for twenty-eight years before ; and that in their zeal for proselyt- 
 ism they had sent missionaries into several parts of the kingdom, 
 where they had no call from the people, and no congregation to 
 support them, so that the £1200 were made a means of spreading 
 schism into many other parts of the country. These outward 
 troubles kept them pure within. 
 
 In the reign of George I., £800 per annum were divided in 
 equal shares between the ministers of the Synod and those of the 
 Southern Association, as an acknowledgment for their services in 
 the Hanoverian Succession. During the reign of this monarch, 
 and his more immediate successors, full exercise to liberty of con- 
 science had been enjoyed by the Presbyterians ; during which, 
 error and schism invaded the body of Irish Presbyterians. Arian- 
 ism found its way across the channel, and some of the most spe- 
 
04 
 
 culative and daring of their ministers stood forth as champions of 
 the new dogma. Subscription to creeds, and excommunicating 
 anathemas, were resorted to in vain ; the Presbytery of Antrim 
 was formed ; the Remonstrants, a division from the Synod of 
 Ulster, have more recently enrolled themselves under the banner 
 of a twin brother ; the associated Dissenters of the south had pre- 
 viously unfurled the same standard. So that with the double 
 sign — the Castor and Pollux of Arianism and Socinianism — there 
 are now arrayed about forty or fifty ministers and congregations, 
 of Irish Presbyterians. It has frequently been observed, however, 
 in surveying the annals of the Church, that when any religious 
 body has declined in purity of doctrine and fervour of zeal, it has 
 pleased God to raise up others, either to reclaim them or occupy 
 their place. About the year 1746, a minister of the Seceding 
 communion came over from Scotland, and planted another 
 standard of the cross, the arms of that communion being quar- 
 tered on it, in Ulster ; and he was afterwards followed by others 
 of his fellow labourers, both Burghers and Anti-burghers. Where- 
 ever these new leaders were introduced, the friends of orthodoxy, 
 justly disdaining to have their own or their children’s ears polluted 
 by the sound of heresy, or their services rendered under an 
 attainted banner, forsook their old connexions, and joined them- 
 selves to the congregation of the Seceders. In consequence of 
 this, and of very active exertions, there is a continual increase of 
 their numbers. 
 
 In 1737, George the Second’s reign, the Ulster Synod evinced 
 by their minutes a prudent forethought, and wrote to their 
 brethren in Dublin, allowing them in their name to address the 
 Lord-Lieutenant upon his arrival ; and, if they found it con- 
 venient, to give a modest hint concerning the S s. In 1749, 
 
 they again consulted their friends in Dublin, concerning the expe- 
 diency of addressing the Government at this time concerning an 
 application for an augmentation of the Regium Donum. In 1753, 
 it was voted and approved by the same prudent body, that in 
 time to come no minister be fixed in any congregation subject to 
 this synod, unless they pay, by way of stipend, at least 40/. 
 a-year besides the regal stipend ; while the congregations already 
 planted were required to pay that sum yearly henceforward. 
 
 In 1784, Government granted an additional sum of £1,000 per 
 annum to the ministers of the Synod of Ulster, to be distributed 
 at the pleasure of the Chief Governor or Governors of the King- 
 
65 
 
 dom. In 1792, £5,000 were granted during pleasure, which were 
 divided among the ministers of the Synod, the Presbytery of 
 Antrim, the Seceders, the Southern Association, and the minis- 
 ters of the French Church, St. Peter’s, Dublin.* 
 
 In the commotions which convulsed Ireland towards the close 
 of the 18th century, not a few of the Presbyterian ministers were 
 implicated, and this occasioned great searchings of heart among 
 the Synods — the Regium Donum was in danger; by it many of 
 them had their living; others of them were doubtless excited by 
 higher motives. However, in more recent times, the royal bounty, 
 which had been dispensed in a sum-total yearly, and left to their 
 own division among the ministers of the Synod, became the 
 subject of grave consideration; and Lord Castlereagh, and the 
 Ministry under whom he acted, somewhat altered the channel in 
 which the contribution of the State should flow to the Presbyte- 
 rians. In 1803, it was determined, in order that the administra- 
 tion of the grant might have a check upon the clergy, (is not this 
 the object in all State bounties bestowed upon ecclesiastical func- 
 tionaries?) that each minister should receive, as for himself, while 
 the gift should be granted according to the congregation ; that the 
 disloyal ecclesiastic should be deprived by the decree of the Se- 
 cretary of State, but that the Regium Donum should continue to 
 be drawn, even where the minister was deceased, or deprived ; 
 and the benefit of such revenue should be appropriated to a 
 widows’ fund. The congregations under the care of the Synods 
 and Presbytery of Antrim were arranged in three classes, accord- 
 ing to the number of families and stipend of each. Agreeably to 
 this classification is the allowance of the ministers — some only 
 £50, some at the higher rate of £ 75, and the highest £ 100 per 
 annum ; while the congregations add to the sum, and increase 
 the ministers’ salary, according to their respective liberality, by 
 subscriptions or seat-rents. “ It is an ill wind that blows in 
 nobody’s barn door:” these new arrangements were made the 
 reason and pretext for imploring and obtaining increased help 
 from the national treasury, to support <f the Presbyterian Synod 
 of Ireland,” called Seceders. Their ministers are also the con- 
 tinued stipendiaries of the State — the hired pulpit servants of 
 
 * The sum for the French Church continued to be voted till the accession of 
 the present ministry, though no French minister has officiated for nearly thirty 
 years, in the city of Dublin ; and large revenues are still attached to that 
 church by bequest, &c. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 “ the powers that be.” Their allowances are on a smaller scale, but 
 graduating also according to locality, and other circumstances. 
 Their classes are £70, £50, and £40 per annum. Are these the 
 principles of their brethren of the f voluntary churches’ in Scotland P 
 The discussions which ended in the formation of the Presby- 
 tery of Antrim began, and were conducted with more or less ardour, 
 between 1705 and 1724; and some of the most distinguished and 
 talented of the Presbyterian ministers of Ireland, Dr. Boyse and 
 Mr. Abernethy, were involved in the controversy. It appears that 
 Mr. Nevin disclaimed being an Arian, yet scrupled and refused to 
 make subscription to any human form of opinion or belief. Not- 
 withstanding, from the general suspicion which prevailed among 
 the Synod, from the warmth and extent of the debates, and from 
 the fact that Arianism did raise its head among the Presbyterians, 
 both in the north and south of Ireland, it may not be a harsh or 
 hasty conclusion, that that form of church government, and the 
 patronage of the state, are not sufficient to guard against hetero- 
 doxy, or the appropriation of the national bounty to propagate a 
 system of opinions directly obnoxious to written standards, and 
 hostile to established creeds and confessions of faith. Let the de- 
 vout advocate of national establishments of religion, of state patro- 
 nage, or territorial endowments for the advancement of Christianity, 
 ponder well the palpable fact, that up to this day thousands of 
 pounds yearly are devoted to maintain in Ireland Arian and Soci- 
 nian ministers, as well as some who labour neither for one creed 
 nor another, but whose only concern is, what they shall eat, or 
 what they shall drink, or wherewithal they shall be clothed. It is 
 desirable that the English public should further know, what the 
 effect is of that, which, improperly is denominated Royal Bounty, 
 but may more correctly be designated government improvidence, 
 parliamentary extravagance, and national robbery. At the close 
 of the session of parliament for 1833, nearly £24,500 were voted 
 for the support of Presbyterian ministers in Ireland. By the ap- 
 propriation of such grants in former years, the several bodies of 
 Presbyterians in Ireland have been able to proceed, not merely in 
 the maintenance of existing congregations, at least of ministers for 
 such congregations, but also to encrease their number of cleri- 
 cal stipendiaries throughout the country. The usual process for the 
 consolidation of a new interest, in such parts of the country as are 
 known to us, may be thus briefly described. A certain number of 
 adult persons, supposed to be, or designated as, heads of families 
 
67 
 
 residing" in a vicinity, subscribe a document declaring themselves 
 to be Presbyterians, and desiring the settlement among them, as a 
 congregation, of a minister whom they approve of. This docu- 
 ment is forwarded to the Presbytery, and having received the sanc- 
 tion of their competent ecclesiastical authorities, the congregation 
 and minister are enrolled, having been duly organized, &c., are 
 returned as people and minister of that communion, and become 
 eligible to the enjoyment of Regium Donum. A memorial, at- 
 tested by the Moderator of the Synod and their lay agent, is then 
 presented by the minister of the congregation to the Lord Lieute- 
 nant, soliciting the Bounty usually granted to the ministers of that 
 body ; and as a security for his dutiful obedience, and a proof of 
 his acceptableness, the oath of allegiance is subscribed, and the 
 attestation of two magistrates is added, to witness that he has duly 
 taken the oath, and pledged his loyalty as the quid pro quo. Not 
 infrequently it occurs, that persons have subscribed themselves as 
 members of such congregation who do not feel under the moral 
 obligation of contributing to the support of their minister, or who are 
 well satisfied by the appropriation of a most miserable pittance, to 
 eke out the salary of their recognised pastor ; they calculate on the 
 government allowance, and neither cherish in themselves, nor in 
 the members of their families, any sense of individual responsibi- 
 lity, or the obligation to make personal effort, for the advancement 
 of religion. The minister receives his £50 or £70 yearly; but 
 the sum is inadequate for the support of a family, or for their ele- 
 vation in society. Consequently, the man who should be wholly 
 given to sacred things, and the cultivation of the religious improve- 
 ment of his people, is induced to turn his thoughts to other pur- 
 suits, and to occupy his time with secular engagements. In many 
 instances the Regium Donum is applied as the rent of a farm — 
 the minister becomes a farming gentleman ; or, holding from the 
 head landlord, he sub-lets portions of his lease, at rack-rents, to the 
 neighbouring peasantry for potatoe fields. It is not an uncommon 
 sight, in country towns, in fairs and markets, to witness the Presby- 
 terian minister selling his pigs, his corn, or his sheep ; and, it may 
 be, completing his bargain in the public-house, or over the whiskey 
 bottle, on a Saturday afternoon, or at other times nearly approach- 
 ing to religious service. The advocates of Temperance Societies 
 tell some strange stories regarding the north. The clerical cha- 
 racter is lowered by such exposure ; the tone of mind in the victim 
 of such a system is vitiated ; his official engagements are not dis^ 
 
68 
 
 tinguishecl by the exertion of intellect or the researches of study ; 
 and he fails to effect that good, or to command that moral and 
 spiritual influence, which would render him a benefit to his flock. 
 His people fail to acquire an enlarged and comprehensive bene- 
 volence, or active and vigorous minds ; generous principles do 
 not exalt them; liberality of sentiment or of charity lies beyond 
 their attainment ; and they take no interest in diffusing the know- 
 ledge of their own religion, or the advantages of a free and en- 
 lightened constitution, in their own neighbourhoods, or among 
 their fellow men in remoter districts. Even where a desire to do 
 good has actuated some of them, their designs are selfish, their 
 liberality is penurious, and their efforts are feeble or abortive. The 
 influence of a system so replete with evil may serve to account for 
 the inefficiency of Presbyterianism itself in Ireland ; and the obstruc- 
 tions which other modes of doing good in the country must herein 
 have had to encounter, will sufficiently explain the cause of their 
 slow or partial success. Let the patriotic statesman, the Christian 
 citizen, and the philosophic and candid enquirer after truth, as also 
 the student of ecclesiastical history, survey the sad and dreary 
 effects of the paralyzing conjunction of church and state, in a 
 country which requires all the energies of a vigorous and healthy 
 Christianity, and all the resources of a wise and benevolent govern- 
 ment to redeem its population from civil discord and superstitious 
 and ruinous priestcraft. 
 
 Applications to the liberality of English Christians are some- 
 times made by delegated ministers, on behalf of chapel cases in 
 Ireland ; and the plea is usually strengthened by a statement of 
 local circumstances. Obstructions from popish influence, the per- 
 manent action and juxtaposition of Socinian or Arian heterodoxy, 
 and the infantile weakness of new interests, are often successfully 
 urged ; and even the wealth and inefficiency of the dominant 
 establishment, are pressed upon the consideration of the Anglican 
 Dissenter. But we would arm the consistent opposer of national 
 churches with these brief and simple questions : Does the body 
 with which the applicant is associated receive the Regium Donum? 
 And if they do enjoy it now, does it form part of their plan ultimately 
 to make the usual application for obtaining that allowance ? 
 Answers to these will lead to, or furnish, a suitable criterion for 
 the claims and responsibility involved. And ministers, or those 
 who recommend cases to their people or friends, should remember 
 these considerations. 
 
69 
 
 The Synod of Ulster hold their annual meeting about the close 
 of June ; they have a clerical moderator, chosen by the members 
 of Synod, by roll, annually; he presides as chairman at the 
 meetings, and continues through the year an official organ for 
 public communications, and to preach at the re-assembling of the 
 Synod. They have also a clerk, chosen by themselves, but holding 
 the office during their pleasure. There are fifteen Presbyteries, 
 whose business it is to take cognizance of irregularities in the 
 subordinate Kirk Session, or to consult for promoting the general 
 welfare in their immediate locality : their decisions are subject to 
 appeal before the Synod. They have — 
 
 Congregations, 237 ; Ministers and Licentiates, 275 ; and a nominal popu- 
 lation, 400,000, of all classes and ages giving to each preacher the care of 
 1400 souls, young and old. 
 
 The Presbyterian Synod of Ireland pursue nearly the same 
 ecclesiastical and synodical details ; their annual assembly is in 
 July ; they number about — 
 
 Congregations, 123 ; Ministers, besides Licentiates, 123 ^ and members 
 
 85.000, besides casual hearers j giving to each preacher the care of 700 souls ? 
 young and old. 
 
 The Arian and Socinian body, including the Synod of Munster, 
 the Presbytery of Antrim, and the Remonstrant Synod, may be^ 
 altogether — 
 
 Congregations, 40 ; Ministers, &c. 60 ; and members, as a community, 
 
 16.000. 
 
 Two or three other sections remain ; the Covenanters, I believe, 
 the Old-light Antiburghers, and the Scottish Seceders, as they 
 choose to be designated ; the numbers of their congregations may 
 be 25 or 30, and their people about 15,000. 
 
 I may have overstated numbers, but I have not designed to 
 exaggerate the proportion, and I believe I am not far astray in the 
 larger bodies. The last divisions disclaim alliance with the state, 
 and refuse to pollute their tent, or endanger their camp, by the 
 golden wedge, the silver shekels, and the Babylonish garment. 
 Their character is not less pure, nor their practical allegiance 
 more doubtful, than their hireling or stipendiary fellow-subjects. 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 BRIEF NOTICES OF EMINENT PERSONS CON- 
 NECTED WITH, OR CALLING THEMSELVES, 
 THE INDEPENDENTS, OR CONGREGATIONAL 
 CHURCHES IN IRELAND. 
 
 Cromwell is in bad odour with defendants or apologists for esta- 
 blished churches ; the mention of his name throws them into parox- 
 ysms of abuse. Some advocates for the legalized episcopacy in 
 Ireland affirm that his religion was plunder, that his morality was 
 hypocrisy, and his piety, fanaticism ; they assert that he uprooted 
 religion, while he pretended to reform it ; that he railed at epis- 
 copacy, that he might steal the jewels from the mitre ; and ejected 
 the clergy, that he might feed his great company of great preachers, 
 his artillery, and his dragoons, from the patrimony of the church. “ It 
 is true,” they say, “that he ordained whole troops of dragoons, and 
 by a magical agency transformed them into gifted preachers.' By a 
 metamorphosis not less sanctimonious, he desecrated our cathedrals, 
 and, by an adhesion to puritanical heterodoxy of turning things to 
 the opposite of their intended use, he converted the stalls of the 
 prebendaries into stables for the horses of the godly.” This is 
 almost heroic poetry ; but it is too metaphorical. Could the writer 
 really mean to compare gifted preachers and cathedrals P I often 
 wonder at the glib manner in which a period can be rounded, in decla- 
 matory slander against that extraordinary man, by men who know just 
 as little of the Protector as Oliver Goldsmith chose to copy from Hume, 
 or who believe as much falsehood as the infidel historian pleased to 
 invent. The Protector Cromwell’s great preachers and chaplains 
 were Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, D.D., John Howe, A. M., 
 and other eminent patriots. They were the most faithful and able 
 men that England or any other country could adduce from the page 
 of their national annals ; and though neither of them was made a 
 prelatic noble, or a counsellor of the Star Chamber, or a judge in 
 that court where whipping and branding, confiscation and burning, 
 
71 
 
 were the penalties awarded for the exercise of a pure conscience, 
 and obedience to the word of God, they continued Cromwell’s 
 zealous servants and faithful advisers till his death : they departed 
 not from their principles when changing times rendered their prin- 
 ciples unpopular; but, by patient continuance in well doing, by 
 unflinching integrity in the midst of sufferings for conscience’ sake, 
 and by learned, practical, devout, and voluminous writings, they 
 acquired a distinction in the history of their country, and in the 
 records of the church, which adds honour to their patron, and 
 reflects a glory upon the character of the ruler, whom to serve was 
 to praise, that should resist and disperse the clouds gathered upon 
 his reputation by infidel or partizan detractors. Dr. Owen, — -no 
 court parasite or unprincipled changeling, no heated enthusiast or 
 political adventurer, — Dr. Owen, the Vice Chancellor of Oxford, — 
 a situation which he adorned by his integrity, pious learning, and 
 benignant government, — this man said, “ it is unnecessary to expa- 
 tiate on his (O. Cromwell’s) praise, or to rehearse his good deeds, 
 since all are eager to ascribe to him the best blessings they enjoy ; 
 and he has obtained immortal honour by his conduct. I, therefore, 
 purposely omit the eulogy of the wisest and bravest man which this 
 age, fertile in heroes, has produced. Whatever shall become of 
 England, it shall ever be known that he was a prince who had at 
 heart the glory of the Island and the honour of religion.” Such is 
 the testimony of the commentator on the Hebrews, the writer “ On 
 Spiritual Mindedness,” and “ On the Glory of Christ,” who held 
 his office of chaplain in conjunction with the immortal author of 
 “ The Living Temple,” the “Blessedness of the Righteous,” and 
 “Delighting in God.” Both these eminent men visited Ireland, 
 and preached the gospel in the churches of that land. No one ever 
 seriously charged O. Cromwell as a Roman Catholic, as a libertine in 
 principle, or as licentious in practice. No ruler ever did more for Pro- 
 testantism abroad, or for liberty of conscience at home. So zealous 
 was he in religion, as to be charged with enthusiasm, and classed 
 among fanatics ; and so unblameable in his personal conduct, as to 
 be designated a consummate hypocrite, and a canting dissembler, 
 by men who never made any profession of evangelical religion, 
 and whose conduct was a continued violation of every Christian 
 precept. 
 
 It is the more remarkable that men professing a zeal for the Protes- 
 tant religion, and maintaining a controversy so hostile with Popery 
 as the high church writers in Ireland have monopolised, in their own 
 
72 
 
 esteem, should exhibit such rancorous bitterness and vituperative 
 declamation against the Protector, when we consider the character 
 of the kings who preceded and followed him as rulers of the British 
 empire. The glaring inconsistency of such conduct might be proved 
 by the statements of such writers against themselves : one declares 
 that “ Charles the first had, by the instrumentality of his Queen, 
 entered into a contract to sell Ireland and the Protestant religion to 
 a Roman Catholic foreigner the same writer further remarks, “ we 
 may estimate this affection for the established church, by observing, 
 that one of the remarkable conditions of this traitorous bargain was, 
 that no ruler should henceforth govern in Ireland, but a disciple of 
 Rome ; ” but this is not enough to express the churchman’s opinion 
 of the Royal Martyr, for he is also charged with “ detaining the 
 possessions of the church to carry on war against his own subjects.” 
 Did Cromwell act thus ? and yet in this churchman’s ritual is a 
 service annually performed, not quite as a mass or a beatification, 
 but as an anniversary humiliation for the martyrdom of the blessed 
 King Charles, to deprecate God’s wrath for the guilt of shedding 
 that sacred and innocent blood : let the libellers of Cromwell read, 
 mark, and inwardly digest the hymn to be said or sung on the 
 annual canonization day of Charles, beginning ‘ Righteous art thou,’ 
 &c., and which the priest and people are directed to alternate in 
 due solemnity ; let them consider the collects for the 30th of Ja- 
 nuary, morning and evening, and compare them with the opinions 
 or facts above recited, and determine, according to truth, the com- 
 parative merits of the respective rulers and their several admirers. 
 It may not be deemed mal a-propos to repeat, that even churchmen, 
 and advocates for the church establishment in Ireland, describe 
 “the vices of Charles the Second, who was a vicious profligate,” as 
 “ the willing tool of the Roman Catholic priesthood, who followed 
 the example of the rapacious aristocracy of Ireland, and withheld 
 from the church the means of support : ” and yet, having subscribed 
 their assent and consent to all things contained in the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, they, with a “pure heart and humble voice,” repeat 
 the collects appointed for the 29th day of May, “ wherein the mi- 
 raculous providence of God is to be acknowledged, in restoring to 
 us, and to his own just and undoubted rights, our then most gracious 
 Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second.” Surely here the ser- 
 vices of an established church, and the propriety of praying by act of 
 parliament, may be tested, weighed in the balances, and found want- 
 ing in truth and honesty. Is it by mental reservation that these 
 
73 
 
 services are performed ? Does the Official reason, that as this is an 
 act of homage which the Church renders to the State, an instance 
 of the allegiance which the priesthood owes to king-craft for value 
 received in kind, as it is to man and not to God the obligation is 
 clue, this part of worship does not require the heart? It may be 
 that some devout and scrupulous churchman disapproves of these 
 services ; then he should not subscribe ; he is in heart a dissenter ; 
 and conformity in a matter so sacred by such dissentient is a lie, 
 not unto man, but unto God, which will assuredly bring down the 
 establishment as a carcass to the posture of prostration to which 
 Ananias and Sapphira fell at the apostles* feet. 
 
 When Oliver Cromwell was sent to Ireland as the representative 
 of the Parliament, whether in pretence or reality, he exhibited a con- 
 cern for the auspicious countenance of God upon his undertaking. 
 He requested that Dr. J. Owen, then independent minister at Cog- 
 geshall, would accompany him in his expedition, and aid him in 
 regulating the affairs of Trinity College, Dublin. Owen, being ad- 
 vised by other ministers, was induced to comply, and on the 7th of 
 June, 1649, preached a sermon before the General, the officers of 
 State, and the House of Commons, preparatory to the expedition 
 for Ireland. On the 2d of July, having received the parliamentary 
 commission as chaplain to Lieut.-General Cromwell, he proceeded 
 with the army, which sailed in August, and reached Dublin in the 
 same month, when Owen took up his residence in Trinity College. 
 He was burdened with manifold employments, and with constant 
 preaching to a numerous multitude of as thirsty people after the 
 gospel as ever he conversed with. Nor were his labours without 
 success. On his return from Ireland, February 1650, he was called 
 to preach before the Parliament, when he discovered the deep in- 
 terest he took in the welfare of Ireland. “ I would there were/* 
 says he, “for the present, one Gospel preacher for every walled 
 town in the English possessions in Ireland. The land mourn- 
 eth, and the people perish, for want of knowledge ; many run to 
 and fro, but it is upon other designs — knowledge is not increased. 
 They are sensible of their wants, and cry out for supply. The tears 
 and cries of the inhabitants of Dublin after the manifestation of 
 Christ are ever in my view. If they were in the dark, and loved 
 to have it so, it might, in some respects, close the door upon the 
 bowels of our compassion ; but they cry out of their darkness, and 
 are ready to follow any one whomsoever, who has a candle. If their 
 being without the Gospel move not our hearts, it is hoped their im- 
 
74 
 
 portunate cries will disquiet our rest, and extort help, as a beggar 
 doth alms.” 
 
 He then directed the attention of the Parliament to higher con- 
 cerns than the subjugation of Ireland ; and suggested the appoint- 
 ment of a Committee to consider its religious state, and to take other 
 steps for supplying the wants and redressing the grievances of a 
 country so ill-fated. Cromwell seconded these representations, and 
 Parliament passed an ordinance, on the 8th of March, for the en- 
 couragement of religion and learning in Ireland. “ They invested 
 all the manors and lands, late of the Archbishop of Dublin, and of 
 the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick, together with the parsonage of 
 Trim, belonging to the bishopric of Meath, in the hands of trustees, 
 for the maintenance and support of Trinity College, Dublin ; and 
 for the erecting, settling, and maintaining another college in the 
 said city — and of a master, fellows, scholars, and public professors; 
 and for erecting a free school, with a master, usher, scholars, and 
 officers, in such manner as any five of the trustees, with the consent 
 of the Lord-Lieutenant, shall direct and appoint. The Lord- 
 Lieutenant to nominate the governor, masters, &c., and to appoint 
 them their salaries ; and the trustees, with the consent of the Lord 
 Lieutenant, shall draw up statutes and ordinances, to be confirmed 
 by the Parliament of England.” The University of Dublin being 
 thus revived, and put on a new footing, the Parliament sent over six 
 of their most acceptable preachers to give it reputation, appointing 
 them £200 per annum out of the bishops’ lands; and till that could 
 be duly raised, to be paid out of the public revenue. By these 
 methods, learning began to prosper; and in a few years, religion 
 appeared with a better face than it had ever done in that kingdom 
 before. The impartial student of history will give praise where it is 
 due ; and the politician will discern that the Independents were 
 neither Goths nor barbarians ; that their love of learning was not 
 to be measured by the height of their spires, or the breadth of 
 their phylacteries ; and that their services to science and her daugh- 
 ters were not less sincere, for the democratic character of their 
 church government, or its independence of the state. 
 
 The Brownists, or Independents, had carried their doctrines and 
 the practice of their discipline into Ireland, soon after they had esta- 
 blished themselves in England. In 1650, Dr. Samuel Winter, 
 having relinquished a benefice worth £400 per annum in England, 
 went over with the other Parliament Commissioners, that he might 
 promote the interests of the Gospel in Ireland. He was made 
 
75 
 
 provost of Trinity College, which he found almost desolate and 
 forsaken ; but under his care it became a valuable seminary of 
 piety and learning. He was pastor of an Independent church in 
 the city at the same time ; in both of which stations he continued 
 till the Restoration. After his appointment, in 1655, Claudius 
 Gilbert, another congregational minister, in Limerick, Edward 
 Reynolds and J. Warren, both ministers of the same persuasion, 
 united with Dr. Winter, as the “ aforesaid ministers of Christ in 
 Ireland,” in a letter to Mr. Richard Baxter. John Rogers, author 
 of “ The Tabernacle of the Sun,” was minister of another church in 
 Dublin, of which the governor of Dublin, Col. Hewson, was a 
 member, and to which John Byewater and Thomas Huggins, 
 preachers of the word, joined themselves. At the same time, 
 Mr. Thomas Patient was a Baptist minister at Waterford, and, 
 having accompanied General Fleetwood to Ireland, usually preached 
 in the cathedral. Mr. Murcot and Dr. Worth were also ministers 
 of the same persuasion. Henry Cromwell, son of the Protector, 
 had been appointed a major-general in Ireland in the year 1654, 
 and was sworn, on the 24th of November, 1657, Lord-Deputy of 
 Ireland. While in these exalted stations, he not merely professed 
 himself a member of, and communicated with a particular Inde- 
 pendent church in Dublin (and this is the best way for a ruler to 
 give countenance to religion), but he also avowed his desire to. 
 regulate the Irish government in conformity with such principles- 
 It was, moreover, testified by a competent number of the com- 
 munity, that they blessed God for “his equal justice to all, and 
 mercy to the poor ; for his prudent and loving carriage to all that 
 fear God, though of different judgments, endeavouring to preserve 
 unity and love amongst them ; for the countenance that himself and 
 family gave to all God’s public ordinances, by their constant and 
 reverent attendance on them ; for the respect, countenance, and 
 encouragement, that in an especial manner he gave to all the 
 godly ministers of the gospel ; and we do also declare, and that 
 upon good ground, that, generally, all the sober-minded Christians 
 throughout this whole land are of the same mind with us herein : 
 dated this 3d day of June, 1656,” — signed by many ministers. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Harrison had gone over with Lord Henry Cromwell, 
 and preached for several years in Christ-church, Dublin, with 
 universal applause. He left Dublin at the Restoration of Charles ; 
 but returned when silenced in England by the act of uniformity. 
 He exercised his ministry as a Dissenter in Dublin, having a 
 
76 
 
 flourishing congregation, and many persons of quality for his con- 
 stant auditors. Though a congregationalist in church government, 
 yet he managed all matters with such discretion, was so agreeable 
 and eloquent as a preacher, and so insinuated himself into the 
 affections of his people, that he excited the admiration of all who 
 knew him. He was a complete gentleman, much courted for his 
 conversation — free with the meanest, and yet fit company for the 
 greatest persons. Stephen Charnock resided with great respect in 
 the family of Harry Cromwell, and exercised his ministry on the 
 Lord’s day afternoons, to the admiration of the most judicious 
 Christians, having persons of the greatest distinction in the city of 
 Dublin for his auditors, and being applauded by such as were of 
 very different sentiments from himself. Many commended his 
 learning and abilities who had no regard for his piety. Mr. Samuel 
 Mather also went over about the same time, and became colleague 
 to Dr. Winter. He preached every Lord’s-day morning at the 
 church of St. Nicolas, and once in the six weeks before the Lord 
 Deputy and his council. Though an Independent, Anthony Wood 
 acknowledges, he was a man of much moderation, and civil to Epis- 
 copalians, when he had the power of injuring them. He died in 
 Dublin, in 1671. Daniel Williams, D.D., founder of the Red- 
 cross-street Library, London, before he was nineteen years old, 
 was regularly admitted a preacher. Seeing he had no prospect of 
 being able to perform his ministry in England, and receiving an invi- 
 tation to become chaplain to the Countess of Meath, he readily ac- 
 cepted it, and came to Dublin. There he found a refuge from the 
 storm, and was favoured with peculiar opportunities of usefulness. 
 After some time, he was called to the pastoral office in Wood-street, 
 Dublin, where he continued for twenty years, and by his labours in 
 the pulpit, his prudent advice, and his access to people of rank, God 
 made him a helper of many, and very useful in his cause. He filled 
 his station with unusual acceptance and success — living in great 
 harmony with his brethren, and was respected by most hearty Pro- 
 testants ; till, with many others, after escaping some threatening 
 dangers, he was driven from thence by the tyrannical government 
 and violent proceedings of the popish administration of James II. 
 
 Mr. John Bailey, a native of Lancashire, and born near to 
 Blackburn, eminently pious in his youth, and early employed in the 
 service of Christ’s church, after hard and repeated imprisonment in 
 England, because he could not conscientiously conform to human 
 inventions, in the service of heaven, visited Ireland in the year 1670. 
 
77 
 
 His labours were here so frequent and fervent, as greatly and irre- 
 parably to injure his health. He spent about fourteen years at 
 Limerick, where he reaped the fruits of his labours in a plentiful 
 harvest. While he was here, a person of honourable rank, and his 
 lady, nearly related to the Duke of Ormond, then Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, attended his ministry. This gave umbrage to the 
 bishop of the diocese, who made complaint of it to the Lord- 
 Lieutenant. This gentleman then offered Mr. Bailey, if he would 
 conform, to procure him the office of chaplain to the duke, together 
 with a deanery, and the first vacant bishopric. He refused the 
 offer ; but it was accepted by another Nonconformist in the vicinity 
 of Limerick, who conformed on the pretence that he did it for the 
 sake of opportunities to preach the gospel. This man obtained 
 various other steps of preferment, but so many obstacles came then 
 in his way, that he was seldom able to preach at all. Mr. Bailey 
 proceeded in the exercise of his ministry, without any factious 
 designs, merely aiming at the conversion of men to Christ, and 
 promoting faith and holiness. But though unblameable in his 
 whole conversation, and beloved wherever he came, he suffered 
 another long imprisonment, while popery was countenanced, and 
 Roman Catholics enjoyed liberty. When he was before his judges, 
 he thus addressed them. “ If I had been drinking, gaming, and 
 carousing at a tavern with company, my lords, I presume that 
 would not have procured my being thus treated as an offender. 
 Must praying to God, and preaching Christ, with a company of 
 Christians, who are as peaceable, inoffensive, and serviceable to his 
 Majesty and the Government as any of his subjects — must this be 
 considered as a greater crime ?” The recorder answered, “We will 
 have you to know, it is a greater crime.” 
 
 While he was imprisoned, his church, being divided into seven 
 parts, visited him one part every day, when he prayed with them 
 and preached to them ; by which means he once in a week served 
 them all. This proceeding, however, gave such offence, that in a 
 short time a violent obstruction was given to it; when his flock, and 
 particularly his dear young men (as he called them), prayed without 
 ceasing, and not without fasting, for his release; and humble appli- 
 cations were made to the judges at the assizes on his behalf. But 
 no release could be obtained, unless he gave security that he should 
 leave the country within a short and limited time. These persecu- 
 tions drove him from the city, which soon became almost a desola- 
 tion, being twice besieged and stormed by a victorious army ; so 
 
78 
 
 that wrath came down to the uttermost upon those who persecuted 
 this servant of God ; while he found a retreat, and a quiet dwelling 
 place, in New England, where he carried his principles, enjoyed 
 liberty of conscience, and applied his exertions to benefit the souls 
 among whom he had found an asylum. How much does America 
 owe to the Pilgrim fathers, and to the tyranny which drove them 
 across the Atlantic, abhorring the domination of prelatic govern- 
 ment as much as the anti-christian superstition of papal Rome ! 
 
 In Dublin, the Presbyterian and other Dissenting congregations 
 were, originally, not as some of them are now, connected with either 
 the synod of Ulster, or of Munster ; and it is probable, that besides 
 Wood-street chapel (now shut up and almost forgotten, but, as ap- 
 pears from past history, a sphere of honourable labour), other places 
 of congregational worship were held by the Dissenters. Plunket- 
 street meeting-house was not joined either in the Dublin Presbytery 
 or with the Synod of Ulster till the middle of last century. Other 
 places of Protestant dissenting worship were maintained in succes- 
 sion, but Congregationalism has not spread widely in Ireland. 
 Their preachers receive no parliamentary aid, but they and their 
 places of worship are supported entirely, either by their own con- 
 gregations, or by the subscriptions of fellow Christians. There has 
 been a want of combination and mutual confidence, or intercourse, 
 which, however characterised by independency, does not secure 
 efficiency and success, or say much for the zeal of this denomination 
 in Ireland. 
 
 There are in Ireland thirty congregational churches, counted as 
 follows : eleven in the province of Ulster ; four in Connaught ; six 
 in Leinster, and nine in Munster. They have a total of about twelve 
 hundred and fifty members now in church fellowship; and the 
 preaching of the gospel among them is brought to bear directly and 
 regularly on at least five thousand persons ; and occasionally on 
 many more. 
 
 Such a number of beacon-lights, scattered through a land, three- 
 fourths of the population of which are enveloped in midnight dark- 
 ness, and the great majority of the remainder either living under 
 the influence of a frigid formality, or quickened by the lurid flame 
 of a political religion, will not be considered an unimportant circum- 
 stance by any sincere lover of the Saviour’s cause. Their number, 
 it is true, is not great, nor their inflnence of a kind which the world 
 would highly estimate ; but if they have not only the light of pure 
 doctrinal truth, and the simplicity of New Testament government 
 
79 
 
 and discipline, but also the heat and animation of the Spirit's 
 influence, they are indestructible, and will increase. 
 
 Why, it may be demanded, have I entered into these details 
 and given a catalogue of men long since gone to their fathers P It 
 is to shew, that religion may be practised and promoted by men 
 who are neither the “ hirelings of government," nor the opponents 
 of “ the powers that be that a system of that pure and simple 
 doctrine was propagated, has stood, and will yet continue, without 
 the sunshine of court favour or the shield of legal patronage ; whose 
 continuance is a test of the vitality of principles, of their sufficiency 
 to sustain such minds as receive them, and of the practicability of 
 their application to society at large. This scheme invites enquiry, 
 as it would relieve statesmen and governors of much responsibility, 
 danger, and difficulty, and ensure to the people the undisturbed 
 and untempting enjoyment of the most sacred privileges and most 
 exalted distinctions. 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 SHORT SKETCHES OF OTHER AND MINOR SECTS, 
 CALLING THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS, IN IRE- 
 LAND.— THOUGHTS HEREBY SUGGESTED. 
 
 No apology is necessary for resuming the subject to which my 
 previous pages have invited attention, since it is more important 
 than the evanescent interests of parties on either one or other side of 
 politics; and I trust that, however much I may fail to do justice to 
 the respective Associations under discussion, I shall yet so succeed 
 in laying open for further consideration questions involving such 
 consequences, as to invite the inspection of abler men, that they 
 may pursue with more leisure and efficiency all the divisions of the 
 discussion. Some minor sections of Protestant denomination re- 
 main, to complete our details of the branch of the Moral Statistics 
 of Ireland already partially discussed, and whose adherents and 
 principles possess considerable influence in the measures adopted, 
 and the characters formed and exhibited, in Ireland : the Wesleyan 
 Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, the Quakers, the Moravians, 
 the Separatists, and the Baptists. 
 
 The Baptist denomination has not experienced much prosperity in 
 Ireland for many years. They have ten or twelve congregations, or rather 
 churches, and a few people attached to each, throughout the country ; 
 they were comparatively in greater strength in the time of the Pro- 
 tectorate than they are now. Some of their most popular ministers 
 from England visited Dublin ; such as Mr. Pearce, of Birmingham, 
 Mr. Frances; and Dr. Rippon, who preached for a few weeks in 
 the closing years of last century. But at present, and for some 
 years, this community have been but little known in Ireland, except 
 by the Baptist Irish Evangelical Society of London. The exertions 
 of this association are chiefly directed to the maintenance of schools, 
 and the employment of scripture readers and itinerant labourers in 
 the more destitute and distant parts of the country. It is stated 
 that this society employs six itinerant ministers, and fifty-three scrip- 
 
81 
 
 ture readers, besides the teachers in their schools. Probably of the 
 whole body in Ireland, south and north, including members of 
 families, and casual hearers, independent of their schools for chil- 
 dren and adults, there may not be more than one thousand people 
 belonging to the denomination. 
 
 The Separatists had their origin in the opinions and example of 
 two or three clergymen, who, most conscientiously and disinterest- 
 edly, seceded from the Established Church. One of these 
 gentlemen had been a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and was 
 a popular preacher, as an institutional chaplain, in Dublin ; the 
 individuals attached to his persuasion are called by his name — 
 Walkerites. Another, Mr. Thomas Kelly, was the son of a judge, 
 whose property lay in Queen’s County ; and though his secession 
 from the Church was so extreme as to find rest only in a system 
 which may be described as the independency of Dr. John Owen 
 run to seed, where every brother may and should seek to edify the 
 brethren ; yet his affection for the good men in the law church, and 
 their affection towards him, alike creditable to both, is perhaps with- 
 out a parallel in the annals of ecclesiastical controversy. Mr. George 
 Carr, of New Ross, was also a clergyman of the Establishment, 
 but renounced that connexion, to join himself to Mr. Kelli’s 
 society. Mr. Walker’s followers are throughout considered highly 
 Antinomian, and consist of a few small societies: Mr. Kelly’s friends 
 are generally held to be more doctrinally sound by the ortho- 
 dox ; they have five or six branch churches through the country. 
 Besides the friends of these two leaders, there remain a few extreme 
 people, very good and well-meaning honest folks, but denying any 
 Christian authority for the ordinance of a distinct class of men bear- 
 ing the office of minister. There are also some adherents to the 
 tenets of Baron Swedenborg, who, I suppose, have attained to the 
 confines of illimitable extravagance, and, in the domain of opinion 
 and intellectual enterprise concerning religion, may be considered 
 the freebooters of doctrine, or the Bedouins of Utopia Petrea. In 
 all Ireland, I presume, we should not find five thousand, of every 
 hue and variety, under the general division of Separatists. 
 
 The Moravians are members of the fraternity who have their 
 chief seat in Hernhutt, and whose most distinguished leader, by 
 whose guidance they were brought under the notice of more modern 
 times, was Count Zinzendorf. They are not confined to Lusatia, 
 whither Zinzendorf led them more than a century ago, but are found 
 here also. The Moravians boast an ancient origin, and trace their 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 genealogy, if not to St. Peter, to some source at least as pure and 
 primitive, and are sure that they are a more ancient episcopalian 
 body than any existing protestant church, and that the Count only 
 effected the restoration of the unity of the brethren. Their intro- 
 duction to Ireland, however, is of more recent date. Their cha- 
 racter has not been fairly delineated by Mosheim, and it has been 
 grossly calumniated by his English translator, judging from the 
 representation of it as exhibited at Gracehill, and other stations in 
 this country. They have in Ireland seven congregations, or rather, 
 I fancy, seven different places where members of their congrega- 
 tion meet for worship ; they have nine regular ministers, and about 
 five hundred recognized members : perhaps of casual hearers and 
 youths committed to their care, including their fraternity, there 
 may be between one thousand five hundred and two thousand 
 people under the influence of, and deriving all their religious in- 
 struction from, the Moravians in Ireland. 
 
 The number of that peaceful, industrious, but benevolent, and 
 always prosperous people, the Quakers, is probably about five 
 thousand in Ireland. I wish it were multiplied a hundred fold, 
 and that they were not called upon to support religions, or so 
 called religious establishments, against the dictates of their con- 
 sciences. I wonder at one feature in their character here — how can 
 they account for it P — an entire abstinence from any attempt to 
 extend the knowledge of their doctrines, or gain proselytes: it 
 appears as if they were content to have an existence in the country 
 tolerated. A little more activity on their part might have a re- 
 active influence on their own community. Wherever humanity’s 
 voice is heard, the Friend’s ear is open, and his exertions are 
 aroused for the relief of the body, or the wellbeing of the suffering 
 and destitute. But has religion no calls upon the same society 
 and their most efficient energies P Does not the Spirit call them 
 to spiritual work for a dark and benighted people ? It is not in 
 Temperance Societies, or Anti-slavery Societies, or even the Kil- 
 dare- place Association (from which, indeed, I fear, they are with- 
 drawing,) that their strength should be wholly spent; but their 
 teachers, their ministers, their intellectual, truly cultivated, and 
 pleasing manners should be summoned to the battle-field against 
 him whose kingdom shall be subdued by weapons that are not 
 carnal, but mighty through God. I wish, too, they would tell the 
 world what number of congregations, of ministers, &c. precisely, 
 are in Ireland belonging to their body, that the lovers of their 
 
83 
 
 country may know what proportion of good citizens are to be 
 calculated on for the future weal of this land. 
 
 John Wesley ever adhered to the Church of England, and was 
 as much attached by profession to its creed and ritual, its autho- 
 rities and establishment, as was his father. He disavowed any 
 intention ever to secede, or to countenance secession in any of his 
 followers. He declared himself a zealous defender, and his dis- 
 ciples wish to be considered humble servants, of the Episcopal 
 Establishment : we find no parallel to them, but in the devoted- 
 ness of Loyola and his fraternity to the Holy See. It was not to 
 assail, but to strengthen the church — it was not to multiply dis- 
 sentients, that he laboured, but to supply, in obedient and con- 
 formable subserviency, all the deficiencies of the Church, and to 
 prevent dissent. His preachers were not to preach, when the 
 parish ministers were officiating ; nor to establish separate con- 
 gregations, where the doctrines were taught which he approved ; 
 and when a Wesleyan congregation was formed, the members 
 were to communicate with the Established Church, and all Chris- 
 tian rites were to be devoutly received at the hands of the parochial 
 clergyman ; while none but an episcopally ordained priest, if 
 attached to his society, should ever be accounted Reverend, or 
 bear the vessels and perform the ceremonies of the sanctuary. 
 
 A different view of Wesley’s intentions has divided the Wesleyan 
 Methodists from the Primitive Wesleyan Methodists; the latter 
 have preachers who are in general plain Mr., and only a very few 
 who are dignified as The Reverend ; and they have only the appa- 
 ratus which Mr. Wesley established, while they go like good 
 churchmen to their parochial edifice, and receive at episcopally 
 ordained hands the sacraments of the church. The former call 
 their travelling preachers Reverend, and plain Mr. is applied to 
 the local preachers. They possess all Mr. Wesley’s apparatus, 
 and what, according to their conceptions, they think is no breach 
 of his creed, the sacraments, and a distinct order of ministers, 
 independent of episcopal ordination, or presentation to benefice. 
 In Ireland, the Primitive Methodists have — circuit preachers, 40; 
 and missionaries, 19; besides local preachers. They reckon 
 16,000 members ; and probably with casual hearers, children, &c. 
 their community may number 40,000. The Wesleyan Methodists 
 have upwards of ninety travelling preachers, twenty-four mission- 
 aries, thirty-five supernumerary preachers, besides local preachers — 
 men who support themselves. They speak of 25,000 members ; 
 
84 
 
 and probably with the children of their families, casual hearers, 
 and members, we may state their community at fifty or sixty 
 thousand people. Both branches of this denomination are very 
 compact bodies in themselves, and have much mutual intercourse, 
 between the ministers and the congregations, and with and between 
 the ministers as members of the Conference. What is called high 
 Protestant feeling pervades their communities; and generally they 
 are regarded with more favour than other Dissenters, by both the 
 clergy and good church laity in Ireland. It has been said, by a 
 rather severe ecclesiastical historian, “ that the want of competent 
 knowledge in the great body of their preachers has nourished 
 error and enthusiasm among the people, and too fully justified 
 the heavy censure which has been passed upon this communion, as 
 containing a greater sum of ignorance of the Scriptures than was 
 ever found in any body of Protestants since the Reformation.” 
 I shall not discuss the truth of this censure : I should hope it is 
 not true, now at least. The very reverend the Dean of St. Patrick’s 
 testified, in the summer of 1832, to the character of the Metho- 
 dists, in the following very different strain : “ I repeat it, as a 
 Christian minister, I am under great obligations to this Society; 
 and but for it, many of my flock would now be victims to the 
 delusions and errors of Popery : while, instead of that, they are at 
 present moral, excellent, Bible-reading Christians, — aye, and I 
 would also say, they are men of courage and resolution,” &c., — 
 Orange-men, perhaps, and ready to shout, when a good many of 
 them are congregated together, f No surrender,’ ‘ No surrender !’ 
 Whether this compliment is at the expense of the Establishment, 
 which has not sufficiently provided for the flock, or at the expense 
 of the Dean himself, who can only spend six months per annum 
 at Castle Comer, having to qualify during the remainder of the 
 year for the revenues of the Deanery, we shall leave to be settled 
 by the two parties. 
 
 It may be hastily inferred, from the numerical details of the 
 several denominations who do not partake of bounties or state 
 patronage, that the smallness of their numbers in Ireland rendesr 
 their operations despicable, and their influence beneath notice or 
 regard, in the discussion of national interests, or great general 
 principles arising out of the present crisis. The biblical student 
 will, however, recollect that the church may be hid in the wil- 
 derness, where she may acquire strength and judgment for her 
 
85 
 
 spiritual conflict ; and that when she comes up out of the wilder- 
 ness, it is accompanied by One mighty to save, and whose pre- 
 sence will make walls to shake, and walled towns to submit to the 
 invading host, till the hearts of the people of the land melt within 
 them. The politician will recognize, in his calculations, the prin- 
 ciple of representation : all these sections of nominal Christianity 
 are connected with, or form parts of, the several prevailing deno- 
 minations in England. There is not merely a sympathy in the 
 separate parts, and a community of interest in the whole ; but 
 there is denominational honour, and the mutual responsibility of 
 service and co-operation, under the sanctions of moral obligation, 
 and of sacred and divinely constituted fellowship. These are 
 elements of civil policy and social community, coming every day 
 increasingly under the cognizance of mankind, and to exert an 
 influence in the advancement of society, which cannot be resisted, 
 and may not be overlooked with impunity. 
 
 But again, it may be urged, that among the sectarian varieties 
 there is no security against division and heresy, and no authority 
 to preserve from the evil of schism, or maintain order among the 
 several and disjointed elements ; that, like as it was in the days of 
 old, when there was no king in Israel, every man may proceed 
 according to the imagination of his own heart. But that the 
 church of England is protected against such consequences, by the 
 establishment of her formula, and the parliamentary authority of 
 her articles, enforced and secured by the jurisdiction of her epis- 
 copal hierarchy, her lordly prelates ; a politic and efficient arrange- 
 ment. To this we might reply, that religion is the independent 
 concern of every individual ; that in this matter we can neither 
 think, nor believe, nor act by proxy ; that there is one king, even 
 Jesus, he is Lord of all; that He, by an authority superior to all 
 human councils, and paramount to the claims of universal govern- 
 ment, — by a power to which all kings must bow, and every 
 dominion must yield subjection, — and an unerring judgment, 
 which can pierce the deepest recesses of thought, the farthest 
 mysteries of truth, and the sublimest conceptions of exalted intel- 
 lect; that can unfold the darkness of the human mind, lay bare 
 the pretensions of proud philosophy, and the assumptions of 
 domineering polemics and priestly dictators, — has established a 
 standard for truth, and fixed laws for the government of his 
 kingdom, which are accessible to all his subjects, and obligatory 
 on every professor of his religion ; that the Bible, written by His 
 
86 
 
 inspired servants, is His statute book, and is profitable for the 
 entire and thorough direction of the man of God in every matter; 
 that the only province of spiritual rulers is to teach, exhort, 
 instruct, and rebuke, with all patience and long-suffering, accord- 
 ing to the law and testimony of this Book. But we shall farther 
 confirm these declarations by the reasoning and argument of a 
 prince in Israel. 
 
 “ Indeed, in the constitution and founding of a church, that 
 some men inspired from God should have an extraordinary calling 
 to appoint, to order, and dispose, must needs be. So Moses, 
 though himself no priest, sanctified and ordained Aaron and his 
 sons. But when all needful things be set and regulated by the 
 writings of the apostles, whether it be not a mere folly to keep up 
 a superior degree in the church, only for ordination and juris- 
 diction, it will be no hurt to debate awhile. The apostles were, 
 the builders, and, as it were, the architects of the Christian church : 
 Wherein consisted their excellence above ordinary ministers ? A 
 prelate (or defendant for the prelatic system) would say, in com- 
 manding, in controuling, in appointing, in calling to them, and 
 sending from about them, to all countries, their bishops, and 
 archbishops, as their deputies, with a kind of legatine power. 
 No, no, vain prelates : this was but as the scaffolding of a new 
 edifice, which for the time must board and overlook the highest 
 battlements ; but if, the structure once finished, any passenger 
 should fall in love with them, and pray that they might still 
 stand, as being a singular grace and strengthening to the house, 
 who would otherwise think but that the man were presently to be 
 laid hold on, and sent to his friends and kindred. The eminence 
 of the apostles consisted in their powerful preaching, their unwea- 
 ried labouring in the word, their unquenchable charity, which, 
 above all earthly respects, like a working flame, had spun up to 
 such a height of pure desire, as might be thought next to that 
 love that dwells in God to save souls; which while they did, they 
 were contented to be the offscouring of the world, and to expose 
 themselves willingly to all afflictions, perfecting thereby their hope 
 through patience to a joy unspeakable. As for ordination, what 
 is it but the laying on of hands, an outward sign or symbol of 
 admission? It creates nothing; it confers nothing: it is the 
 inward calling of God that makes a minister, and his own painful 
 study and diligence that manures and enriches his ministerial 
 gifts. In the primitive times, many, before ever they had received 
 
87 
 
 ordination from the apostles, had done the church noble service, 
 as Apollos and others. It is but an orderly form of receiving a 
 man already fitted, and committing to him a particular charge; 
 the employment of preaching is as holy, and far more excellent ; 
 the care also and judgment to be used in winning of souls, which 
 is thought to be sufficient in every worthy minister, is an ability 
 above that which is required in ordination. For many may be 
 able to judge who is fit to be made a minister, that would not be 
 fit to be made ministers themselves ; as it will not be denied that 
 he may be the competent judge of a neat picture or elegant poem, 
 that cannot limn the like. Why, therefore, we should constitute 
 a superior order in the church to perform an office, which is not 
 only every minister’s function, but inferior also to that which he 
 has confessed right to ; and why this superiority should remain 
 thus usurped, some wise Epimenides tell us ! Now for juris- 
 diction, this dear saint of the prelates, it will be best to consider 
 first, what it is. That sovereign Lord, who in the discharge of 
 his holy anointment from God the Father, which made Him 
 supreme Bishop of our souls, was so humble as to say, “ Who 
 made me a judge or a divider over you ?” hath taught us that a 
 churchman’s jurisdiction is no more than to watch over his flock, 
 in season and out of season; to deal, by sweet and efficacious 
 instructions, gentle admonitions, and sometimes sounder reproofs ; 
 against negligence and obstinacy will be required a rousing volly 
 of pastorly threatenings ; against a persisting stubbornness, or the 
 fear of a reprobate sense, a timely separation from the flock, by 
 that interdictive sentence, lest his conversation, unprohibited or 
 unbranded, might breathe a pestilential murrain into the other 
 sheep. In sum, his jurisdiction is to see to the thriving and 
 prospering of that which he hath planted. What other work the 
 prelates have found for chancellors and suffragans, delegates and 
 officials, with all the hell-pestering rabble of sumners and appa- 
 ritors, is but an invasion upon the temporal magistrate, and affected 
 by them as men that are not ashamed of the ensign and banner of 
 antichrist. But true evangelical jurisdiction is no more, as was 
 said, than for a minister to see to the thriving and prospering of 
 that which he hath planted. And what is the worthiest of these 
 two, to plant, as every minister’s office is equally with the bishops, 
 or to tend that which is planted, which the blind and undiscern- 
 ing prelates call jurisdiction, and would appropriate to themselves 
 as a business of higher dignity ? Have patience, therefore, a little, 
 
88 
 
 and hear a law case. A certain man, of large possessions, had a 
 fair garden, and kept therein a laborious and honest servant, 
 whose profession was to set or sow all wholesome herbs, and 
 delightful flowers, according to every season, and whatever else 
 was to be done in a well husbanded nursery of plants and fruits. 
 Now when the time was come that he should cut his hedges, prune 
 his trees, look to his tender slips, and pluck up the weeds that 
 hindered their growth ; he gets him up by break of day, and 
 makes account to do what was needful in his garden: and who 
 would think that any other should know better than he how the 
 day’s work was to be spent? Yet for all this, another strange 
 gardener, that never knew the soil, never handled a dibble or spade 
 to set the least pot-herb that grew there, much less had endured 
 an hour’s sweat or chilliness, enters, challenging as his right the 
 binding or unbinding of every flower, the clipping of every bush, 
 the weeding and worming of every bed in that and all other 
 gardens thereabout : the honest gardener that ever since the day- 
 peep, till now the sun was grown somewhat rank, had wrought 
 powerfully about his banks and seed-plots, at his commanding 
 voice turns suddenly about with some wonder, and though he 
 
 could have well beteemed to have thanked him of the care he 
 
 proffered, yet, loving his own handy-work, modestly refused him, 
 telling him withal that, for his part, if he had thought much of 
 his own pains, he could for once have committed the work to 
 one of his fellow-labourers, forasmuch as it is well known to be a 
 matter of less skill and less labour to keep a garden handsome, 
 than it is to plant or contrive it, and [that] that he had already 
 performed himself. No, said the stranger, this is neither for you 
 nor your fellows to meddle with, but for me only, that am, for this 
 purpose, in dignity far above you : and the provision which the 
 
 lord of the soil allows me in this office is, and that with good 
 
 reason, tenfold your wages. The gardener smiled, and shook his 
 head ; but what was determined I cannot tell you, till the end of 
 this Parliament.” 
 
 The income of the clerical functionaries in these minor sections 
 is small indeed. It is presumed there are not three cases where 
 the official salary of an Independent, Baptist, Methodist, or Mora- 
 vian minister amounts to £200 per annum ; and that they do not 
 average for each one hundred pounds annually, in all Ireland : so 
 far from becoming rich by their profession or office, some are de- 
 pendent on private property, or other resources, arising from the 
 
89 
 
 bounty of friends, or their own exertions, either of a literary or 
 educational description, But, it may be pleaded, “If it be so, 
 and such poverty be the portion of the pastors and bishops of 
 these communities, and were the same scale to be adopted for all 
 churches, in time we should see wooden chalices and wooden 
 priests : a state provision, competent and respectable, is therefore 
 the best substitute that can be determined.” An author of note, 
 whom we have already engaged in these discussions, replies — “It 
 had been happy for this land if your priests had been only 
 wooden ; all England knows that they have been to this island 
 not wood but wormwood, that have infected the third part of our 
 waters, like that apostate star in the Revelation ; that many souls 
 have died of their bitterness : and if you mean by wooden, illite- 
 rate or contemptible, there [has been] no want of that sort among 
 you ; and this number [was] encreasing daily, as their laziness, 
 their tavern-hunting, their neglect of all sound literature, and their 
 [preference] for doltish and monastical schoolmen increased. 
 What if I should tell you how the universities, that men look 
 [expect] should be fountains of learning and knowledge, have 
 been poisoned and choked under your governance ? And if to be 
 wooden be to be base, where could there be found, among all the 
 Reformed churches, nay in the church of Rome itself, a baser 
 brood of flattering and time-serving priests ? [than in the esta- 
 blished churches of these lands;] according as God pronounces, by 
 Isaiah, ‘The prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.* As for your 
 young scholars, that petition for bishoprics and deaneries, to en- 
 courage them in their studies ; and that many gentlemen else 
 [otherwise] will not put their sons to learning ; away ! with such 
 mercenary striplings and simoniacal fathers ! God has no need of 
 such, they have no part or lot in his vineyard ; they may as well 
 sue for nunneries, that they may have some convenient stowage 
 for their withered daughters, because they cannot give them por- 
 tions answerable to the pride and vanity they have bred them in. 
 This is the root of our mischief ; that which they allege for the 
 encouragement of their studies should be cut away forthwith, as 
 the very bait of pride and ambition, — the very garbage that draws 
 together all the fowls of prey and ravens in the land, to come and 
 gorge upon the church. How can it be but ever unhappy to the 
 church of England [or any other church] while she shall entice 
 men to the pure service of God by the same means that were used 
 to tempt our Saviour to the service of the devil — honour and pre- 
 
90 
 
 ferment? Fit professors are they indeed, to teach others that 
 godliness with contentment is great gain, whereas their godliness 
 of teaching had not been but for worldly gain ! The heathen 
 philosophers taught that virtue was for its own sake inestimable ; 
 and the greatest gain of a teacher, to make a soul virtuous. So 
 Xenophon writes of Socrates, who never bargained with any for 
 teaching them ; he feared not that those who had received so high 
 a benefit from him, would of their own free will return him all pos- 
 sible thanks. Was moral virtue so lovely and so alluring, and 
 heathen men so enamoured of her, as to teach and study her, with 
 greatest neglect and contempt of worldly profit and advancement ? 
 And is Christian piety so homely and so unpleasant, and Christian 
 men so cloyed with her, as that none will study and teach her but 
 for lucre and preferment ? O stale-grown piety ! O Gospel, rated 
 as cheap as thy Master, at thirty pence, and not worth the study 
 unless thou canst buy them that will sell thee ! O race of Caper- 
 naitans, senseless of divine doctrine, and capable only of loaves 
 and belly-cheer. 
 
 “But they will grant, perhaps piety may thrive, but learning 
 will decay. I would fain ask these men, at whose hands they seek 
 inferior things, as wealth, honour, their dainty fare, and their lofty 
 houses. No doubt but they would soon answer, that all these 
 things they seek at God’s hands. Do they think, then, that all 
 these meaner and superfluous things come from God, and the 
 divine gift of learning from the den of Plutus, or the cave of Mam- 
 mon ? Certainly never any clear spirit, nurst up from brighter 
 influences, with a soul enlarged to the dimensions of spacious art 
 and high knowledge, ever entered there but with scorn, and 
 thought it ever foul disdain to make pelf or ambition the reward of 
 his studies ; it being the greatest honour, the greatest fruit and 
 proficiency of learned studies, to despise these things. Not liberal 
 science, but illiberal, must that needs be, that mounts in contem- 
 plation merely for money. And what would it avail us to have a 
 hireling clergy, though never so learned? For such can have 
 neither true wisdom nor graces, and then in vain do men trust in 
 learning, where these be wanting. If in less noble and almost 
 mechanical arts, according to the definitions of those authors, he is 
 not esteemed to deserve the name of a complete architect, an excel- 
 lent painter, or the like, that bears not a generous mind above the 
 peasantly regard of wages and hire ; much more must we think 
 him a most imperfect and incomplete divine, who is so far from 
 
91 
 
 being a contemner of filthy lucre, that his whole divinity is 
 moulded and bred up in the beggarly and brutish hopes of a fat 
 prebendary, deanery, or bishoprick ; which poor and low pitcht 
 desires, if they do but mix with those other heavenly intentions 
 that draw a man to this study, it is justly expected that they 
 should bring forth a base-born issue of divinity, like that of those 
 imperfect and putrid creatures that receive a crawling life from 
 two most unlike procreants, the sun and mud. And in matters of 
 religion, there is not any thing more intolerable than a learned 
 fool or a learned hypocrite ; the one is ever coopt up at his empty 
 speculations, a sot, an idiot, for any use that mankind can make 
 of him ; or else sowing the world with nice and idle questions ; 
 and, with much toil and difficulty, wading to his auditors up to 
 his eyebrows in deep shallows that wet not their instep : a plain 
 unlearned man, that lives well by that light which he has, is better 
 and wiser, and edifies others more towards a godly and happy 
 life, than he. The other (the learned hypocrite), is still using 
 his sophisticated arts, and bending all his studies, how to make 
 his insatiate avarice and ambition seem pious and orthodoxical, 
 by painting his lewd and deceitful principles with a smooth and 
 glossy varnish, in a doctrinal way, to bring about his wickedest 
 purposes. Instead of the great harm that these men fear upon the 
 dissolving of prelates, what an ease and happiness will it be to us, 
 when tempting rewards are taken away ; [so] that the cunningest 
 and most dangerous mercenaries will cease of themselves to 
 frequent the fold, whom otherwise scarce all the prayers of the 
 faithful could have kept from devouring the flock. 
 
 “But a true pastor of Christ’s sending hath this especial mark, 
 that for greatest labours and greatest merits in the church, he re- 
 quires either nothing, if he could so subsist, or a very common and 
 reasonable supply of human necessaries. We cannot, therefore, 
 do better than to leave this case of ours to God ; He can easily send 
 labourers into his harvest, that shall not cry, Give, Give, but be 
 content with a moderate and beseeming allowance ; nor will He 
 suffer true learning to be wanting where true grace or obedience 
 to him abounds ; for if He give us to know Him aright, and to 
 practise this our knowledge in right established discipline, how 
 much more will He replenish us with all abilities in tongues and 
 arts that may conduce to His glory and our good ? He can stir 
 up rich fathers to bestow exquisite education upon their children, 
 and to dedicate them (if qualified by piety) to the service of the 
 
92 
 
 people. He can make the sons of nobles his ministers, and 
 princes to be his Nazarites. For certainly there is no employment 
 more honourable, more worthy to take up a great spirit, more 
 requiring a generous and free nurture than to be the messenger and 
 herald of heavenly truth from God to man ; and, by the faithful 
 work of holy doctrine, to procreate a number of faithful men, 
 making a kind of creation like to God’s, by being the means of 
 infusing his spirit and likeness into them, to their salvation, as God 
 did into him : arising, to what climate soever he turn himself, like 
 that Sun of Righteousness that sent him, with healing on his 
 wings, and new light to break in upon the chill and gloomy hearts 
 of his hearers ; raising out of darksome barrenness a delicious and 
 fragrant spring of saving knowledge and good works. Can a man, 
 thus employed, find himself discontented or dishonoured for want 
 of admittance to have a pragmatical voice at sessions and jail de- 
 liveries ? or because he may not, as a judge, sit out the wrangling 
 noise of litigious courts, to shrieve the purses of unconfessing and 
 unmortified sinners, and not their souls ; or be discouraged though 
 men call him not Lord ; when as the due performance of his office 
 would gain him even from lords and princes the voluntary title of 
 father ? Would he tug for a barony, to sit and vote in parliament, 
 knowing that no man can take from him the gift of wisdom and 
 sound doctrine, which leaves him free, though not to be a member, 
 yet a teacher and persuader of the parliament. And in all wise 
 apprehensions, the persuasive power in man, to win others to 
 goodness by instruction, is greater and more divine than the com- 
 pulsive power, to restrain men from being evil by terror of the law; 
 and therefore Christ left Moses to be the lawgiver, but [he] him- 
 self came down amongst us to be a teacher; with which office his 
 heavenly wisdom was so well pleased, as that he was angry with 
 those that would have put a piece of temporal judicature into his 
 hands, disclaiming that he had any commission from above for 
 such matters. 
 
 “ Such a high calling, therefore, as this, sends not for those 
 drossy spirits that need the lure and whistle of earthly preferment, 
 like those animals that fetch and carry for a morsel ! No. Re- 
 ligion can find such as therefore study her precepts, because she 
 teaches to despise [secular or lucrative] preferment. And let not 
 those wretched fathers think they shall impoverish the church of 
 willing and able supply though they keep back their sordid sperm, 
 begotten in the lustiness of their avarice, and turn them to their 
 
93 
 
 malting kilns : rather let them take heed what lessons they instil 
 into that lump of flesh, which they [have been] the cause of ; 
 thinking to offer him as a present to God, they dish him out for 
 the devil. Let the novice learn first to renounce the world, and so 
 give himself to God ; and not therefore give himself to God, that 
 he may close the better with the world ; like those false pastors, 
 whose whole life is a recantation of their vow, and whose profes- 
 sion to forsake the world, as they use the matter, bogs them deeper 
 into the world . ” 
 
 If these observations be appropriate to the present discussion, it 
 will no doubt appear to the careful reader as rather singular, and 
 deeply to be regretted, that the passages should have remained in 
 comparative obscurity ; and that it should be necessary to renew 
 the controversy after a lapse of nearly two hundred years. The 
 self-interested, the timid, or the party scribe may draw an analogy 
 between the convulsions of that period and the agitation of the 
 question of church polity in our day. And it may be charged 
 upon Dissenters of this time, that they desire the overthrow of the 
 present Dynasty, and a repetition of the civil distractions which 
 accompanied the beheading of Charles. It might with more truth 
 be replied, that the Restoration, and the dissipated Reign which 
 followed, rolled back the machine of Government, and placed as 
 barriers in the way of national improvement the interests of selfish 
 churchmen and the pride of lordly prelates. Moreover, what 
 caused the convulsions of that period was the blind obstinacy and 
 the corrupt and arbitrary despotism of the Court and Ministry of 
 Charles. They heeded not the demands of Truth, the dictates of 
 Reason, and the paramount claims of the subject. Royal prero- 
 gative, and uniformity in Religion, were the idol monsters to 
 which virtue, principle, and honour were sacrificed. Men in 
 power now have the opportunity of profiting by the facts of that 
 age, and they have evinced a desire of meeting the exigencies of 
 the state on the principles of a wise policy, and of cautiously re- 
 moving the relics of former injustice. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 A CHAPTER OF CONCLUSIONS IN TABULAR FORM, 
 SUBMITTED FOR SOBER CONSIDERATION. 
 
 We shall here sum up the items of preceding statements, and 
 bring them into one view. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodists. — Travelling-preachers, 90; Missions, 24; Supernume- 
 raries, 35 — besides Local - preachers ; Members 25,000; Community altogether, 
 say 55,000. 
 
 Primitive Wesleyan Methodists. — Circuit-preachers, 40; Missions, 19 — besides 
 Local-preachers; Members, 16,000; Community altogether, say 40,000. 
 
 Quakers, Society of Friends. — Community, 5,000. 
 
 Moravians, United Brethren. — Ministers, 9 ; Members in Congregation, 500 
 — Total Community, 1,500. 
 
 Separatists of all Classes — say 5,000 people. 
 
 Antipoedobaptists, usually called Baptists. — Itinerant Ministers, 6 ; Congrega- 
 tions, 12; Scripture-readers, 53 ; Total Community, 1000. 
 
 Independents. — Ministers, 30; Irish Evangelical Society’s Agents, 40; 
 Churches, 30 ; People, 5,000. 
 
 Cameronians or Covenanters. — Ministers, 25 ; Congregations, say 30 ; Com- 
 munity, 16,000. 
 
 Scottish Seceders and Primitive Burghers. —Ministers, 12; Congregations, 
 12 ; Community, 4,000. 
 
 Arians, Presbytery of Antrim, Synod of Munster, Remonstrant Synod. — 
 Ministers, 60 ; Congregations, 40 ; Community, 16,000. 
 
 Seceders, Presbyterian Synod of Ireland. — Ministers, 123 ; Congregations, 
 say 140 ; Members under their care and superintendence, 85,000. 
 
 Synod of Ulster, or Scottish Church in Ireland. — Ministers, 237 ; Licentiates, 
 50 ; Congregations, 250 ; Nominal Community, 400,000. 
 
 Roman Catholic Church. — Clergy, 5,134 — besides 1,000 regular Clergy ; Pa- 
 rishes, 2,000 ; People, 6,000,000. 
 
 Church Established by Parliamentary Enactment. — Clergy, 1,811; Extra 
 Curates, supposed 1,000; Benefices, 1,556; People about 600,000. 
 
 In all, we have ecclesiastical teachers of the different classes of 
 Presbyterians, and of other denominations, about eight hundred 
 ministers and preachers : connected with the Protestant Episco- 
 pacy established by law, so far as we can judge, about two thou- 
 sand eight-hundred clergymen, beneficed and non-beneficed : and 
 in the Romish Church, of secular and regular clergy, six thousand 
 
95 
 
 one hundred and thirty-four: — In all, upwards of nine thousand 
 seven hundred clerical officials, belonging to all sects of religion, 
 among eight millions of people. 
 
 Now, it may serve to throw further light upon the matter of our 
 inquiry, to specify the amount of pecuniary support received by 
 these gentlemen, as far as we can come to a knowledge of facts on 
 the subject. I may not have reached the truth, or I may have 
 exceeded it, in some minutice ; if so, I shall be most happy to give 
 every facility for correction of mis-statements. It is calculated 
 that the Romish Clergy in Ireland receive — 
 
 For annual Confessions £300,000 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 £853,333 
 
 For Christenings, perann. 
 
 33,333 
 
 Collections at Chapels. . 
 
 541,632 
 
 Unctions and Burials.. 
 
 60,000 
 
 Curates’ Collections.... 
 
 22,500 
 
 Marriages 
 
 360,000 
 
 College at Maynooth 
 
 
 Purgatory, Prayers for. . 
 
 100,000 
 
 (Government Grant.) 
 
 9,000 
 
 
 £853,333 
 
 £1,426,465 
 
 From these sums all the Clergy are paid, and all the chapels 
 are built and repaired, and all provision is made for public reli- 
 gious service. 
 
 For the support of the legalised Ecclesiastical Establishment : 
 Revenues of the Church, according to Lord Althorp’s statement, £800,000 ; 
 for the support of Clergy, viz. beneficed Clergy. Parish and Vestry Cess,' for 
 service of the Church, £70,000 ; this has been abolished. Dues for Baptisms, 
 Marriages, and Burials are computed at £105,000, most of which go to help the 
 salary of Curates. Loss to the revenue of the Country by the appropriation of 
 glebe-lands to the Clergy and the Bishop’s leases, £150,000. 
 
 LANDED PROPERTY OF THE IRISH CHURCH. 
 
 A Statement of the gross number of Acres, in statute measure, 
 attached to each See in Ireland ; the amount of rent from te- 
 nants of all descriptions ; and of the net yearly produce of each 
 See (including rent), and of the preferments annexed to it. 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Rent. 
 
 Net Revenue. 
 
 Archbishop of Armagh 
 
 100,563 
 
 £4,634 
 
 £14,464 
 
 Dublin 
 
 34,040 
 
 3,202 
 
 7,786 
 
 Cashel 
 
 20,046 
 
 2,100 
 
 6,308 
 
 Tuam 
 
 86,899 
 
 2,730 
 
 / 6,996 
 
 Bishop of Meath 
 
 29,269 
 
 3,065 
 
 4,068 
 
 Clogher 
 
 22,591 
 
 2,356 
 
 8,668 
 
 Down and Connor 
 
 30,244 
 
 1,352 
 
 4,204 
 
 Derry 
 
 77,102 
 
 2,593 
 
 12,159 
 
 Raphoe 
 
 1,392 
 
 1,451 
 
 5,052 
 
 Kilmore 
 
 28,531 
 
 1,537 
 
 6,225 
 
 Dromore 
 
 18,422 
 
 1,518 
 
 4,216 
 
96 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Rent. 
 
 Net Revenue. 
 
 Bishop of Kildare 
 
 5,074 
 
 21,730 
 
 26,294 
 
 12,985 
 
 13,189 
 
 11,485 
 
 12.482 
 16,765 
 
 42.483 
 11,744 
 45,542 
 
 2,629 
 
 1,015 
 
 2,096 
 
 2,452 
 
 2,493 
 
 1,471 
 
 1,341 
 
 1,345 
 
 2,044 
 
 543 
 
 1,280 
 
 6,061 
 
 3,322 
 
 5,730 
 
 4,973 
 
 3,933 
 
 3,901 
 
 4,091 
 
 3,966 
 
 6,263 
 
 2,970 
 
 3,410 
 
 Ossory 
 
 Ferns 
 
 Limerick 
 
 Waterford 
 
 Cork 
 
 Cloyne 
 
 Killaloe 
 
 Elphin 
 
 Clonfert 
 
 Killala 
 
 Acres, 669,247. Rent, £45,258. Net Revenue, £128,808 sterling. 
 
 It appears, by the recent Parliamentary returns, that there are 
 altogether one thousand five hundred and fifty-six benefices, or 
 livings, in the Irish Church, of which one (in the Diocese of 
 Down) is of the yearly value of £2,800 ; ten are between £2,000 
 and £2,600; twenty between £1,500 and £2,000; twenty-three 
 between £1,200 and £1,500; forty-eight between £1,000 and 
 £1,200; seventy-four between £800 and £1,000; one hundred 
 and forty-eight between £600 and £800 ; two hundred and 
 eighty-one between £400 and £600 ; three hundred and eighty- 
 six between £200 and £400 ; and four hundred and sixty-five 
 between £30 and £200. — I should like to know how many of 
 these last are above £100, and how many are as low as £30 and 
 under £50. 
 
 Estimate the acres at 20s. per acre per annum, and then we 
 have £669,247 per annum from Bishops’ lands. But there are also 
 glebe lands, for the parochial clergy — in the Diocese of Derry 
 alone, 17,000 acres of glebe are possessed. Suppose for all Ireland 
 100,000 acres, at 20s. per acre, another £100,000 per annum; 
 adding the revenue of the Bishops from other sources, and what 
 might be the rental of their lands, and the glebe lands, we should 
 have £852,797 per annum. It is stated that in Ireland 13,603,473 
 acres are subject to tithe. As a tax for the Church, this is in ad- 
 dition to the enormous sum already specified. 
 
 We cannot calculate the loss hitherto inflicted on the farmer 
 and the industrious peasant, by the exaction of tithe according to 
 the improvement of the soil ; nor the expense incurred for main- 
 taining the bayoneted constabulary, the safeguards of the Church 
 in Ireland ; for Crown-lawyers, and law-processes for recovering 
 tithes. The Protestant Charter robbery systems, which have been 
 established and upheld for the exclusive benefit of Churchmen, by 
 
97 
 
 law, will, by-and-by, appear. The continuance of lay-impropri- 
 ate tithes, which amount to £300,000 per annum, is another part 
 of the same system, and is sanctioned by the Ecclesiastical impo- 
 sitions. 
 
 I am not parishioner enough, nor sufficiently versed in parochial 
 politics, to be able to expose by what means splendid churches are 
 built, or spires and towers erected. I shall say nothing on the 
 subject, therefore. What has been specified, for purely ecclesi- 
 astical purposes, exceeds £1,125,000 per annum, for the religion 
 of 600,000 people. 
 
 The Synod of Ulster seems quite convinced that Ireland is not 
 taxed enough for hireling priests and Presbyterian ministers ; and 
 therefore they have wisely determined, in one of their recent Syno- 
 dical assemblies, to petition the Lord Lieutenant to equalize the 
 bounty for all their congregations ; not by reducing the higher, 
 but by raising the lowest and the lower to the first class Regium 
 Donum; that is £100 per annum for 250 congregations, or 
 £25,000 for that body. Of course the Seceders will follow, and 
 the Arians will not be behind in the race that is set before them : 
 their numbers will be, then, 200 more congregations ; another 
 £20,000 annually. And is it to be supposed that the other deno- 
 minations, as well as the Covenanters, will be able to resist the 
 temptation much longer? Quite impossible: it is too much for 
 flesh and blood. But will Mr. Littleton, or my Lord Althorp, 
 be able to propose such a thing in the House of Commons? We 
 shall see. Will the House of Commons venture to bribe these 
 hungry and aspirant Presbyterians? Will the country, will 
 English Dissenters, sit quietly by, and permit such proceedings ? 
 Let the ministry take care; it will not do. A few words will 
 serve — It is too bad. As it is, a mass of moral energy, of popular 
 opinion, is accumulating on this subject, more appalling than a 
 thunder storm or an avalanche. We would counsel, tempt it not : 
 never suppose you will be able to pacify hungry and rapacious 
 Churchmen. Already the Presbyterians receive £24,000 Regium 
 Donum, and £50,000 from their people; while other Dissenters, 
 who receive nothing from Government, contribute to their minis- 
 ters about £26,000 per annum. These three sums, added together, 
 give us another £100,000; making, in all, for Protestant ministers, 
 £1,235,000 per annum The watchful reader will observe, that 
 all the Dissenters, more numerous than Churchmen, do not give 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 more for their ministers, even when aided by Government, than 
 £100,000; but the liberal Church Establishment gives £1,125,000. 
 
 Ever since religion was taken into the service of the state, the 
 reward of the priesthood and the emolument of sacred office, given 
 and received, have been liberal in the extreme. In A. D. 313, 
 Constantine published a decree, distinguishing Christians and 
 their churches as his peculiar favourites; but eight years after- 
 wards services were required and benefits conferred. The emperor 
 granted to all his subjects the free and universal permission of 
 bequeathing their fortunes to the Holy Catholic Church, and 
 vastly did the revenues of the church increase in consequence ; 
 so that then the bishops began to be great men. The emperor 
 himself sent a purse of eighteen thousand pounds sterling to Cceci- 
 lian. Bishop of Carthage, with orders on his treasury to draw for 
 larger sums if wanted. He assigned in each city a regular allow- 
 ance of corn, to supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity ; and the 
 persons of both sexes who embraced the monastic life became the 
 peculiar favourites of the sovereign. They then began to build 
 magnificent churches, the walls and pavement of which were deco- 
 rated with variegated marbles ; and the most precious ornaments 
 of gold and silver, silks and jewels, flamed on the altars. It is 
 asserted, that the rent-roll of three churches in those days pro- 
 duced a clear annual revenue of twelve thousand pounds sterling, 
 besides a reserved rent of oil, linen, paper, aromatics, &c. 
 
 The Bishop of Ferns declares, that the incomes “ allotted to the 
 clergy are designed to induce men to enter the church, with the 
 hope that it will afford them a maintenance, and eventually a 
 competence, or even affluence.” He speaks of the evidence of a 
 gentleman, who averaged the incomes of bishops in Ireland at 
 £5,000 Irish, and then proceeds as ‘Thomas Ferns/ “We do 
 not apply for any change. We do indeed complain of our incomes 
 being overrated. I am not satisfied at being rated at £8,000, 
 when I cannot reckon on £5,000 : nor am I pleased to hear the 
 Archbishop of Dublin rated at £14,000, when I am convinced 
 that he has not £8,000; nor at the Bishop of Derry’s being 
 rated at £20,000, when I do not believe him to have more than 
 £15,000.” I suppose the episcopal lord of Ferns meant, when 
 he said, ive do not apply for any change , that he did not wish 
 to have less ; not that he was disinclined to step into the See of 
 Dublin, or even of Derry, when they should become vacant. Take 
 
99 
 
 him on his own showing; how truly primitive and apostolical 
 must these Hibernian successors of the fishermen of Galilee be in 
 their own esteem, when they are preparing their last will and 
 testament, and when they peruse the w 7 ords of Peter, “Lo, we 
 have left all and followed thee ” ! No wonder that, with such a 
 bishop, the vicar of Bannow should feel at liberty to say — “ It 
 may not be unworthy of remark, that the curate is as well or better 
 paid than any gentleman on his entrance into any other profession. 
 Is the curate not as well paid as the ensign or the lieutenant in the 
 army P What lawyer or physician enters at once upon the receipt 
 of the same income ? Almost in all cases, he obtains promotion 
 as soon as the ensign becomes a captain, or a barrister or medical 
 practitioner secures a reasonable competence ?” We would reply, 
 Does not all this correspond with the language put into the mouth 
 of a worldly patron ; and will it harmonize with His promises, who 
 said, “ My kingdom is not of this world and “ Whosoever will 
 not leave houses and lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, is not 
 worthy of me”? The corrupt State, when dependent on the 
 Church’s services, and proposing the terms of their alliance, has 
 been personified, as the tempter which assailed Him, who is head 
 over all things, and as addressing to the church, “Behold, from the 
 top of the high mountain, all the kingdoms of the world, and the 
 glory thereof. The best part of these fine provinces I will give 
 thee; the fairest portion of every kingdom shall be thine. Behold 
 the fields yellow for the harvests ; see redundant wealth teeming 
 in every pasture, and look on the cattle on a thousand hills : the 
 tenth of all things under the heavens shall be thine. I will give 
 to thee of the fatness of the land, and pour into thy cup the hid 
 treasures of the earth. Others shall plough, but thou shalt reap ; 
 others shall plant, but thou shalt gather ; others shall trim the vines, 
 but thou shalt drink of the grape ; others shall toil, but thou shalt 
 be fed with their labours. Thou hast nothing in the world to 
 do, but to sit down on soft cushions, and be praised of men ; to 
 hear thy eulogies every morning, and rejoice in thine incense every 
 night. I will make thee honoured for thine antiquity, thy high 
 pedigree, and thy fine sounding title; the heralds shall busy 
 themselves about thy quarterings, and there shall be no base blood 
 in thee. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy 
 nursing mothers; and those not allegorical kings and queens, but 
 crowned monarchs of flesh and blood, rich, haughty, and powerful. 
 Behold that splendid retinue of ancient nobility, dukes, princes. 
 
100 
 
 and barons ! I give them all to thee ; and the law of primogeni- 
 ture, which they shall maintain among their secular possessions, 
 will secure thee a continued supply of younger sons, whole heca- 
 tombs of consecrated nobility. I give thee the flower of all the 
 earth’s chivalry — I give thee the strength of arms, the sword, the 
 shield, and the battle. No base thing shall come nigh thee, — no 
 slave, no beggar, no bondsman, — but all shall be rich, high born, 
 and fashionable, or be deemed such. Thy levees shall be attended 
 by the princes, the governors, the chief captains, the judges, the 
 treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the 
 provinces; they shall all bring gifts; thou shalt praise them, and 
 they shall praise thee. Whatever thou sayest shall be law ; all thy 
 lies shall be taken for truth, and all truths spoken against thee 
 shall be considered lies. Thou shalt be toll-taker of the great 
 broad road that leadeth to destruction. I give thee millions of 
 souls of men for thy dowry ; and if that will not satisfy thee, I 
 will give thee hundreds of millions more. Thou shalt never be 
 annoyed by opposition, for I have a standing army of slanders 
 and persecution to overwhelm those that wag the tongue against 
 thee. The world shall always support thee ; thou shalt have thy 
 fill of pleasures, and revel in all manner of luxuries ; thou shalt 
 be ignorant of tribulation and woe, for thy portion shall be dancing 
 and singing. Added to all this, I present thee with a rich priest- 
 hood, to amuse thee with superstitions and bigotry. They shall 
 know nothing but what thou teachest them through the medium 
 of the senses ; and thy religion shall be founded on the senses 
 only. I give thee glorious cathedrals, long-sounding aisles, gloomy 
 vistas of ancient masonry, solemn choirs, and pathetic organs. 
 Thou shalt practically confute that unpalatable dogma, that f God 
 is a spirit,’ and shalt, on the contrary, make it appear that God 
 is corporeal : every thing theatrical in religion shall be thine — 
 processions, long robes, wax candles, and mitres. I will seal up 
 the Bible, that book so contradictory of all thy character, and so 
 opposed to thy majesty, and will establish traditions of men, and 
 man’s invention, in its stead. All this I will clo, and I swear by Mam- 
 mon I will to the very last persecute with fire and with sword all 
 those that withstand thee.” Such have been represented as the 
 terms of contract and negotiation, by which the secular power and 
 the national church became allied, and on which they have hitherto 
 adhered both in England and Ireland : we have copied the illustra- 
 tion, which is the production of one who has done the church some 
 
101 
 
 service, but leave it to abide the judgment of the reader. Such a 
 union, however, experience proves, as reason might have taught, 
 will not be for the service of true religion, nor will it be maintained 
 by the state longer than a return of secular advantages can be 
 obtained ; so soon as the church becomes a burden to the political 
 rulers, so soon as popularity and strength can be secured by cast- 
 ing her off, so soon as it shall appear that the sacrifice would be 
 acceptable to the Belial of power, so soon shall the church be 
 made a whole burnt-offering; her children will be compelled to 
 pass through the fire, her priests will be hunted as a prey, her 
 altars profaned, and her wealth and possessions given to another. 
 A few short-sighted men, as politicians, may attempt to resist the 
 outcry or turn aside the torrent ; their party may be unprepared 
 with satisfactory stipulations, or theii? conscientious scruples may 
 prevent their compliance ; but others will be found, who are either 
 more enlightened or less trammelled by conscience, whose party 
 have longed for the day, and often shouted “ Rase, rase it, cast 
 it down, even to the ground.” And then will be the full experi- 
 ence of that sacred caution, “ Cursed is man that trusteth in man, 
 and that maketh an arm of flesh his strength.” But the devout 
 believer will find refuge and strength in the Lord, who is “great, 
 and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain 
 of his holiness;” while he will be able to join the song, “Beauti- 
 ful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; on 
 the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known 
 in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, 
 they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled ; 
 they were troubled, and hasted away.” And from the same 
 authority it will be found, that no unnecessary office is recognized 
 or sanctioned in the appointment of that house. For, as it has 
 been forcibly remarked, “ an office of honour and ease does not 
 exist in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He is too great to need 
 splendid attendants to add to his dignity; his business is too 
 important to allow any of his servants to live in idleness, who are 
 able to work ; and his rewards consist not of worldly glory and 
 repose, but of a crown of eternal blessedness in heaven, after their 
 labours shall have ceased at death. Labour is the delight, as well 
 as the duty, of Christ’s faithful servants, as long as mind and 
 body are capable of exertion.” 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 CHARTERED SPOLIATION AND NATIONAL EX- 
 TRAVAGANCE, UNDER THE GUISE OF EDUCA- 
 TIONAL ZEAL. 
 
 It is not when a liberal provision of religious institutions is made, 
 that the greatest amount of benefit is conferred on the people, else 
 Ireland would be one of the most distinguished and happy nations 
 in Europe ; but, generally, the more superstitious the people are, 
 or the more service a corrupt Government expects from a tempor- 
 izing Church, the more abundant will be the supply of hired offi- 
 cials, to minister to the requirements of ignorance and bigotry. 
 The criterion is not number, but qualification ; not in every case 
 activity, but wisdom, fidelity, and disinterestedness; not always 
 influence and control, but good feeling, mutual confidence, and 
 respect, producing an increase of knowledge among the people, 
 beneficence and charity between man and man, independence, inte- 
 grity, and high moral worth, in the several members of the com- 
 munity. Many efforts have been made to ameliorate the condi- 
 tion of Ireland. Education has been recommended ; and the 
 resources of British benevolence, as well as the most profuse 
 extravagance in grants from the Government treasury, have been 
 expended for promoting education. As early as the year 1537, 
 laws were passed and plans adopted ; private bequests and asso- 
 ciated efforts were made available for similar purposes ; and hence 
 we have had Diocesan Schools, Erasmus Smith’s Schools, Charter 
 Schools, and schools supported by the Association for discountenancing 
 Vice, Kildare-place Schools, Hibernian Society Schools, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 In the 28th year of the reign of Henry VIII. an act was passed 
 for the education of the people of Ireland; but it was characterised 
 by oppression, and rendered nugatory and ineffective by its impolicy 
 and injustice. It directed that the Irish habit and apparel should 
 be abolished, that the Irish form of wearing the hair should be dis- 
 
103 
 
 continued, and that spiritual promotions (?) should only be given 
 to him that could speak English, and of course wear the hair in the 
 English fashion ; that such incumbent should then come under the 
 obligation of an oath himself to learn, instruct, and teach the Eng- 
 lish tongue to all under his rule, cure, &c. This declaration of war 
 against the native Irish has scarcely yet been withdrawn. In the 
 12th year of the virgin Queen, it had been discovered that the 
 manifold and heinous offences, daily and hourly perpetrated, were 
 attributable to a lack of good bringing up of the youth of Ireland ; 
 and therefore it was provided that a free school should be established 
 in every shire town : and it was further directed, that the school- 
 master should be an Englishman, or of English birth. This was 
 the origin of the diocesan schools. How far they have been con- 
 formable with the enactment, or have served the country, let the 
 facts speak. Notwithstanding renewed legislation in William III/s 
 time ; in the 1st, the 2d, and the 3d George's reign ; and Com- 
 missioners of Education in George IV.'s time, there were in the 
 thirty-four dioceses in Ireland altogether twelve diocesan schools, 
 and masters attached, in the year 1827 ; these schools contained 
 59 free scholars, 131 boarders, and 291 day pupils. Six other 
 diocesan schools had been determined on, but the appointment 
 of masters had not been notified. The expense to the country 
 of these establishments, besides lands, buildings, repairs, & c. was, 
 for masters, nearly £1,810 per annum. 
 
 The enactments of Henry and Elizabeth were not revoked, but 
 rendered more imperative, and their authority revived in William 
 III.'s time, with a design to the maintenance of parochial schools : 
 it was then required that every parochial incumbent should keep, or 
 cause to be kept, a school to learn English. The repetition of this 
 statute was made on the allegation that one great reason of many 
 of the natives continuing ignorant of the principles of true religion, 
 and strangers to the scriptures, was the keeping of schools by 
 Roman Catholics : it therefore directed, that no person of the Popish 
 religion should publicly teach a school, under a penalty of £20. 
 Yet so uninfluenced did the incumbents feel by the terms of the 
 law, that the Commissioners for Educational Inquiry, in the year 
 1825, reported to his Majesty, “ There are many benefices in which 
 no such school is provided : ” and they repeat that a custom has 
 universally prevailed, for the incumbents of parishes in which 
 schools are kept to allow the master forty shillings per annum, as 
 his salary ; and whenever this small stipend is paid (they say, “ ut- 
 
104 
 
 terly inadequate at present,” — when could it be adequate ? ) by the 
 clergyman to a school- master, the school is called a parish school. 
 In the several parishes in Ireland (2,450), it has been stated, there 
 are 782 schools of this character maintained ; 250, the Commission- 
 ers say, are in connexion with the Association for discountenancing 
 Vice : many others derived aid from the Kildare-place Association* 
 from the trustees of Erasmus Smith, or from the Lord-Lieutenant’s 
 fund. The amount of pecuniary aid which the clergy (bishops. 
 Sec.) are said annually to contribute for such parochial schools, is 
 altogether £3,299 19s. 4d. But the character of such parish schools 
 depends upon the rulers of the society with which they may be in 
 connexion, and on which they are dependent — so that no separate 
 description or enumeration is required for them. 
 
 It appears, however, that the clergy, — the dignitaries at least, — 
 have occasionally had some misgivings about the appearance of neg- 
 lect, and thought some shew of concern must be exhibited on this sub- 
 ject, to prove that they were not altogether unmindful of the parliamen- 
 tary dictates of their supreme ecclesiastical head. To such a feeling on 
 their part may we ascribe the petition presented to George II. in the 
 year 1731, signed by all the archbishops and bishops, thirty digni- 
 taries of the Church, and many persons among the laity of the first 
 distinction, praying that his Majesty would grant a charter for in- 
 corporating certain persons with power to accept gifts, benefactions, 
 and lands, for the support and maintenance of schools, wherein the 
 children of the poor might be taught gratis. The petitioners alleged 
 that the Popish natives appear to have little sense of religion, but 
 what they take implicitly from their clergy ; and that they keep 
 them not only in gross ignorance, but in great disaffection to his 
 Majesty and his Government. Among the methods most necessary, 
 in the judgment of the petitioners, to convert and civilise these de- 
 luded people, were a sufficient number of English Protestant schools, 
 wherein the children of the Irish natives should be instructed in the 
 English tongue, and in the fundamental principles of true religion. 
 Whether this petition were forwarded from a consciousness of the 
 inefficiency of the Protestant establishment, from a desire to 
 unburden the conscience of these well-paid dignitaries, or from a 
 wish to increase their own patronage and revenues, we shall not de- 
 termine; but this is most sure, that of all the Irish jobs, this petition 
 has led to the most gross and mischievous perversion of charity and 
 national resources, as we shall now demonstrate. A charier was 
 granted in the year 1733, incorporating the chief dignitaries of the 
 
105 
 
 Church, the officers of State, and others, for the establishment of 
 schools, for the education of the Popish and other poor natives. 
 Primate Boultier, upon whom had devolved in some degree the po- 
 litical rule of the realm, as well as the cares of ecclesiastical super- 
 intendence, in a letter to his episcopal brother of London, says, 
 “The great number of Papists in this kingdom, and the obstinacy 
 with which they adhere to their own religion, occasions our trying 
 what can be done with their children to bring them over to our 
 Church.” Who would imagine that this Primate could never have 
 been a bishop had it not been for “ their own religion,” from which 
 he derived many things besides his ordination ? There was great 
 display at opening the charter in the Council Chamber, before the 
 Lord-Lieutenant and other nobility — much cry and little wool : a 
 subscription, however, was opened, but what was contributed I 
 cannot so well say, as that his Majesty pierced the spring of corrup- 
 tion by granting a thousand pounds out of the national treasury. 
 The first school was opened at Monastereven, in 1734 ; and one at 
 the close of 1737 ; seven other schools subsequently were established, 
 all under the designation of Charter Schools. A petition was again 
 presented in 1745, and another concession made to Protestant ra- 
 pacity : a tax was imposed upon hawkers and pedlars, who must 
 take out licenses and pay duties; whereby £1,100 more were 
 granted annually to the Corporation. Similar petitions succeeded 
 from time to time, and grants to a very considerable amount conti- 
 nued to be obtained. In the year 1769, it was affirmed that there 
 were fifty-two schools and five nurseries, containing 2,100 children, 
 who were clothed and maintained. It certainly was a bold, com- 
 prehensive, and summary mode for effecting the conversion of a 
 nation, if the contrivers of this chartered Corporation really designed 
 to attain it by the establishment of a sufficient number of English 
 Protestant schools for the instruction of the children of the Irish 
 natives, & c., lodging, clothing, and feeding, all such children whom 
 they undertook to educate; nor was the policy less eminently cha- 
 racterised, according to their representation, by benignity or the cha- 
 rities of life, when the school- masters were enjoined not to suffer any 
 Popish priest, nor any relation, or Papist, or any person unknown, 
 to converse with the children except in the presence of the master or 
 mistress ! Could all this proceed from a desire to propagate the true 
 religion ? Contrast Archbishop Boultier’s evangelising system with 
 the proceedings of Paul or Apollos. Was all this congenial with 
 tianity, whose law is love, whose weapons are not carnal P or with chris- 
 
106 
 
 Protestantism, which appeals to “the Bible, and the Bible alone,” as 
 its authority ? 
 
 No wonder that, under such circumstances, the parents were un- 
 willing to part with their children ; and it was found necessary to 
 transfer to the Charter Schools 500 foundlings, though affected with 
 ophthalmia ; no wonder that such schools became the fit objects of 
 a Howard's compassion, and their children the partners and 
 sharers of that philanthropy which visited the regions of captivity, 
 the dungeon of the malefactor, and the cell of the long-bound pri- 
 soner. In 1784, and again in 1787, this compassionate individual 
 found so much of misery and injustice, that he urged and obtained 
 a Committee of the House of Commons, to inquire into the state 
 of the Protestant Charter Schools ; when it was ascertained, that 
 instead of 2,100 children, the number stated by the Society, no 
 more than 1,400 could be produced ; besides that many of the fifty- 
 two schools were out of repair, or going to ruin. Mr. Howard 
 stated that the children were neither well fed, well clothed, nor well 
 taught ; “ the children were pale, sickly, and such miserable objects, 
 that they were a disgrace to all society ; and their reading had been 
 neglected for the purpose of making them work for the masters ; ” 
 in one school, twelve sickly boys were found by him almost naked ; 
 and in another, thirteen similar miserable objects. Some whom he 
 found at one school had been six years at another previously, and 
 yet could not read ; while the dreadful situation of other schools 
 prevented their being filled. Another humane witness declared 
 that the barbarous treatment of the children in the Kilkenny school 
 constrained him to inspect other Charter Schools, where he found 
 the children puny, in ill-health, filthy, and ill-clothed ; some he 
 found without shirts or shifts, and in such a situation as it was in- 
 delicate to look on ; the diet was insufficient, and the education 
 neglected ; in general, the children had the itch, and other 
 eruptive disorders; at one place, where he saw no appearance of a 
 school-room, but a hovel, the window of which was stuffed with a 
 turf-kish and dung, he found eighteen girls, and fourteen boys, 
 sickly, wretched-looking creatures, for all of whom were provided 
 twenty-four ragged shirts and shifts; two of the scholars only could 
 read, and all order appeared neglected among them ; while the 
 master and mistress's apartments were comfortable and well fur- 
 nished, as likewise a parlour for the meeting of the Committee. 
 Notwithstanding these exposures, grants continued to be asked, and 
 obtained, from the public treasury, as large as ever; and as if this were 
 
107 
 
 truly the palladium of Protestantism, private beneficence also added 
 to the wealth of the Corporation. Can we wonder that the super- 
 stitious Hindoos should have endowed a hospital for fleas, or that 
 Beelzebub should have been the god of the Philistines P Con- 
 siderable estates were bequeathed to the Society, by Dr. Pococke, 
 by the Earl of Ranelagh, Baron Voyhowven, and other charitable 
 persons ; one benefactor bestowing as much as £40,000 stock, and 
 witholding his name ; another, £56,666 ; and others, sums of equal 
 liberality. These bequests produced no salutary change in the 
 economy of the Corporation. Right honourable Commissioners 
 testify, “ it is certain that, from the period of Mr. Howard's report 
 till some time after the rebellion of 1798, no considerable reformation 
 had taken place in the state of the schools : even after that year, 
 most of the buildings were in a very ruinous condition, and some of 
 the Schools in a state of great neglect and disorder." 
 
 I know not where it would be possible to hear or read of a system 
 of cruelty, injustice, fraud, hypocrisy, avarice, and persevering 
 wickedness more dishonourable to any nation than in the exposure 
 of this Chartered Corporation , — De propaganda fide Reformatce 
 Ecclesice , — which the Report of the Commissioners of Education 
 Enquiry lays bare : and this by men too, the majority of whom 
 were not altogether free from the prepossessions of Church party, 
 but who yet have probed this mass of ecclesiastical corruption, of 
 greedy selfishness, under the cloak of zeal ; of intolerant bigotry, 
 under the pretension and cant of high Church orthodoxy ; and of 
 unrelenting persecution and iniquitious profligacy, under the guise of 
 Christian compassion and Protestant liberality. One continued 
 series of crime, one long black catalogue of infamy, one revolving 
 circle of sufferings and disgrace moves along, and fills the whole 
 course. No wonder that Ireland has been broken upon the wheel 
 of a racking and torturous Establishment. 
 
 We have a Commission in 1808, composed of his Grace the 
 Primate, his other Grace of Dublin, the Provost of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, the Dean of St. Patrick’s, and others, appointed to inquire 
 into the affairs of this Corporation, of which most of them were 
 chartered officials, and in whose delinquency they themselves were 
 involved: “This great number of children (they say by their re- 
 porter,) are trained up in health, cleanliness, and good order; they 
 are reasonably well taught to read and write ; all learn their duty to 
 God and man;" and their Secretary “cannot close his report, 
 without expressing the very great satisfaction which he experienced 
 
108 
 
 from the general good state of those schools.” Were these men blind, 
 or were they impostors and public swindlers? The men whom 
 they praised, the schools which they so admired, the system which 
 w'as to them the beau ideal of excellence, and the instructions 
 which they regarded as the good seed sown for a future generation, 
 are all thus described by a visitor, who looked more closely, or 
 reported more plainly, what was their state : — “The masters took 
 little share in the instruction of children, their time being occupied 
 in the management of their farms. Some of the houses were kept 
 in a very slovenly and neglected manner; the children were, in many 
 cases, ill-fed, badly clothed, and afflicted by diseases, which might have 
 been easily cured by a little care. They were not brought up in habits 
 of cleanliness and decency, and their hours of instruction and recrea- 
 tion were infringed, by being obliged to work for the benefit of their 
 master.” Subsequent Commissioners give further disclosures. Of 
 the master of the school at Sligo, they say, his habitual practice was 
 to seize the boys by the throat, and press them almost to suffocation, 
 and to strike them with a whip, or his fist, upon the head and the 
 face, during the time his passion lasted. Of the school at Strad- 
 bally, they say, one boy had been flogged with a leather strap nine 
 times in one day, his clothes being taken down each time ; he re- 
 ceived in the whole near a hundred lashes, all for a sum of long 
 division. On the same day, another boy appeared to have received 
 sixty-seven lashes, on account of another sum in arithmetic ; and 
 another boy, only thirteen years of age, had received seventeen 
 stripes with a rope. Eight boys, on another day, were so severely 
 punished, that their persons were found in a shocking state of lace- 
 ration and contusion ; they had been guilty of looking at two police- 
 men playing ball ! In another school, the children complained of being 
 ill-fed and cruelly beaten ; two boys had recently been severely pu- 
 nished by the master : they stated that they had been set to work 
 in the garden, and having had but little breakfast, they were hungry 
 and had eaten a raw cabbage ; that the master caught them, and 
 flogged them for their offence, sixteen stripes and six blow's on the 
 head with a stick ; the head of one of them continued cut and 
 bruised till examined by the Commissioners. In the Charter 
 School at Clonmel there were found two children, and no book, 
 only a few fragments of testaments ; the master, a cripple from 
 rheumatism, receiving £50 a-year, enjoying a house rent-free, and 
 holding from the School Corporation 24 acres of land, at twenty- 
 five shillings, while the rent paid for land adjoining by others was 
 
109 
 
 eight guineas per acre. On examining the boys at the school of 
 Stradbally (formerly named), the two head classes consisted of 
 twenty boys, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years of age. Seventeen 
 of them declared they had never heard of St. Paul ; half of them 
 had no idea whether the word Europe meant a man, a place, or a 
 thing ; only three boys could name the four quarters of the world ; 
 two boys only appeared ever to have heard of Job, and only one 
 could give an account of his history. So much for Primate Boul- 
 tier’s plan of converting Popish natives ! ! 
 
 All this system had been maintained by the Charter School So- 
 ciety, incorporated for converting the rising generation of Popish 
 children to the Protestant faith ; all this was law, under the special 
 cognizance of the Prelates of the Establishment, and should have 
 been the regular subject of periodical accounts from the ordained 
 Catechist or the beneficed Clergy ; all this ought to have been ex- 
 amined and known, prevented or punished ; but all this was tole- 
 rated and winked at. And when any of the sufferers had enterprise 
 enough to write a complaint, his letter was referred to his oppressor, 
 who took signal vengeance upon the adventurous youth in the pre- 
 sence of his fellow-sufferers, telling them why the informer was 
 punished : or when youths grown up, and escaped from the yoke, 
 were brought together, and, being enabled to examine what was the 
 system generally pursued, were induced, from compassion to those 
 still under bonds, to make representations to the Board of Superin- 
 tendence, their letters were not submitted, or disregarded, or made 
 to act injuriously on their own prospects. It would require a volu- 
 minous examination for the exposure and just condemnation of this 
 system of imposture and injustice. Let the curious reader look to 
 the First Report of the Commissioners of Education Enquiry, 1825. 
 
 At present, the number of these Schools is reducing; and as 
 grants have been diminished, and their withdrawment intimated, a 
 decrease of children has taken place ; but in 1825, there were thirty- 
 two Charter Schools, containing 2,210 scholars. The total number 
 of those who have been apprenticed, or who have passed through 
 these schcols, is 12,745. By Parliamentary grants, this Incor- 
 poration, during ninety years, received £1,027,715, and by the 
 liberality of individuals during the same time, £584,423 — in all, 
 £1,612,138, or, divided by each year, £17,901 15s. The number of 
 apprentices produced annually, 142; the cost of each to the public 
 being £126 annually. How many of these became good Pro- 
 testants, or lent their aid to strengthen the bulwarks of the Eccle- 
 
110 
 
 siastical Establishment, may be a question of difficult solution ; in 
 what way the Incorporation served the cause of the Church or 
 churchmen, by secular advantages, is rather a question of individual 
 interest ; but surely a more flagrant abuse of national resources, 
 and of nominal Protestantism, does not stand upon record in the 
 annals of any other country in the known world — always excepting 
 the Church of England in Ireland. It is by such means that the 
 shield of truth is corroded, and that rust eats through the church- 
 man’s panoply, — that the weapons of a spiritual warfare are blunted 
 and rendered powerless, in our contest with darkness, superstition, 
 and infidelity. It is by such proceedings that the purity and ortho- 
 doxy of Protestantism have become a reproach and a by-word. 
 
 Fifty-nine years later in Irish history, another expedient was 
 adopted, for the defence, if not the extension, of the Church by law, 
 in Ireland. The experience of half a century had proved to zea- 
 lous Churchmen, that if Charter Schools were inefficient. Govern- 
 ment liberality was not easily exhausted, and that if a new channel 
 could be opened, fresh streams would flow, while national expendi- 
 ture would only facilitate individual enjoyment and affluence. There 
 was an additional stimulus, a new but powerful motive for exertion 
 by Churchmen, less among Papists than infidels — the altar and the 
 throne were endangered : the howling of the blast was heard, by 
 which the Gallican Church had been overturned, and which now 
 blew through the boughs of the wide spreading plant of liberty that 
 had taken root in France : and if the seeds of that tree, whose shade 
 is more dreaded than the most pestilent Upas, by the lovers of 
 monopoly and the bigots of superstition, were once to alight in this 
 country, they knew well what destruction would come upon every 
 feathered Churchman, every limb of the Ecclesiastical Corporation. 
 In October, 1792, three individuals adopted resolutions about 
 infidelity and morality , the welfare of the country , and the honour 
 of God; baneful torrents, and the impotence of separate attempts; 
 discountenance of vice, and the cause of religion and piety. These 
 watch -words served for a season ; and for nine years about £200, 
 or a little more, annually, were contributed to the Association for 
 discountenancing Vice in Ireland. The turmoil of war, the clash 
 of arms, and the military occupations of infidel France gave some 
 relief to the zeal and contributions of these alarmists ; now, however, 
 they had served an apprenticeship, and the State was called upon 
 to take them into double pay. 
 
 The Society was incorporated by Act of the Legislature, and in 
 
Ill 
 
 1801 a grant of £300 was voted by Parliament. Religious works, 
 as they call them, were distributed, premiums at catechetical exa- 
 minations were given, and schools, new sources of patronage, were 
 established. Supported, or rather managed, by clergymen of the 
 Law Church, and hoping that parliamentary aid would be con- 
 tinued, they announced their hope of assisting in the formation and 
 support of parochial schools, such as the clergy were bound to esta- 
 blish according to acts in Henry and William’s reign. But, “ to 
 guard against the danger of enthusiasm, they established it as a 
 fundamental principle, that nothing be attempted contrary to the 
 doctrine and discipline of the Established Church, or that shall 
 lead in the smallest degree to a separation from the same.” The 
 effect which the books were likely to have could not be powerful, if 
 we judge from the habits of reading produced in such institutions; 
 the evangelical English churchman will find a parallel to this asso- 
 ciation in the English Society for promoting Christian Knowledge ; 
 the books of each have a close resemblance, and the orthodox Dis- 
 senter will judge of their adaptation , when the names are mentioned 
 of The Whole Duty of Man, Nelson on Feasts and Festivals of the 
 Church of England, Seeker on the Catechism, Worthington on 
 Resignation, New Manual of Devotion, the Week’s Preparation, 
 Tomline’s Introduction, Waldo on the Liturgy, Disney’s Com- 
 panion to the Psalms of David, &c. 
 
 The building of school-houses was aided, and so also the salary 
 of teachers, by this Society ; but the school-master must receive 
 from the parochial minister, and conform himself to, his written 
 instructions, as to the children to be taught, and the plan of edu- 
 cation to be followed. Masters and mistresses must be of the 
 Established Church ; their appointment rests with the clergyman ; 
 and the only catechism which shall be taught, is that of the Church 
 of England. It is a prime object to prepare children for catechetical 
 examination in the Established Church. There were, in 1824, said 
 to be 249 schools, holding 15,922 pupils, of whom 6,344 were stated 
 to be Roman Catholics. The Association obtained, by parliamen- 
 tary grants, in twenty-two years, £77,975 1 Is. 3 \d. averaging yearly 
 £3,544 7s. ; but some years £9,000 were obtained. The income 
 apparent in twenty-two years from voluntary subscriptions is 
 £7,348 17s. 2 \d., producing annually, notwithstanding extra efforts, 
 £334. They have, doubtless, increased the degree of education 
 in Ireland, and they have at least thrown many bibles and testa- 
 ments, prayer-books, and other works called by them religious, into 
 
112 
 
 circulation : many of them, however, are to be met with on book- 
 stalls. This will be the result where charitable or national resources 
 are expended for political purposes. It is not improbable that this 
 Association was a principal agent in arousing the active and ener- 
 getic resistance of Roman Catholic priests to the education of the 
 people by Protestant efforts, and bringing the hostility and opposi- 
 tion upon the Kildare-place Schools, by which, finally, the Parlia- 
 mentary grant was withdrawn from its funds. 
 
 Some of the works which they brought into circulation, being of 
 a highly controversial nature, may have excited the polemical spirit 
 among the people, by which Ireland has so often been torn : it is, 
 surely, an inconsistent appropriation of the national revenue ; and 
 and those men who dared to disencumber the government of the 
 country from such influences and causes of discord, conferred a be- 
 nefit on their fellow-citizen and the magistracy of the land. 
 
 In the year 1812, four thousand six hundred schools were main- 
 tained, and 200,000 children were said to be educated in Ireland. 
 Commissioners were appointed, and new commissions were recom- 
 mended. Reports were made, and plans suggested ; thousands 
 after thousands of pounds were squandered; yet education was still 
 the cry. One writer had spent three months, another had travelled 
 three hundred miles in Ireland, while a third had landed at Belfast, 
 and taken ship at Dublin ; and all were equally ready to say, 
 “ What can the man do that cometh after the king ? ” Of antago- 
 nist sentiments, and discordant opinions, it was not long that either 
 had to wish, “ Oh ! that my adversary had written a book.” Pub- 
 lications teemed from the press, and every writer seemed fully 
 confident of his own competency to describe Ireland as it was, as 
 it is, and as it should be ; each one saw its woes, and had discovered 
 remedies; prescriptions, recipes, draughts and solutions, pills 
 and pistols followed in rapid succession. Protestant ascendancy 
 was the dogma, the watch-word, the palladium, and the rule of 
 government, the object of idolatry, the burden of oppression, the 
 political malaria, the ruinous delusion, the dark impending cloud, 
 and the angel of destruction ; it is now the waning shadow, the me- 
 teor in transitu, the evanescing vapour ; may it speedily become a 
 tale that is told, a vision of the night when it is passed away ! 
 
CHAP. XI. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF A BETTER SYSTEM — 
 DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. 
 
 The first ray of a brighter sun for Ireland was cast forth, when it 
 was proposed, “ by keeping clear of all interference with the parti- 
 cular religious tenets, to induce the whole people to receive the be- 
 nefits of education as one undivided body, under one and the same 
 system ; ” and when the Government, as such, explicitly avowed 
 and made it clearly to be understood, as a leading principle in any 
 system of education promoted by the funds of the national Treasury, 
 that no attempt should be made to influence or disturb the peculiar 
 religion of any sect or description of Christians. Had this principle 
 been honestly followed in the proceedings of the Kildare-place 
 Society as a government Institution, long ere this day its path would 
 have, like the shining light, become brighter and brighter, and its 
 course would have been strewed with the blessings which it had 
 conferred, and the returning gratitude of an enlightened people. 
 
 In the year 1811, nineteen years subsequent to the formation of 
 the Association for discountenancing Vice, the Society for promot- 
 ing the Education of the Poor of Ireland had been formed, and was 
 composed of members of various religious communions, who deter- 
 mined to assist in the support, as well as the establishment, of 
 schools, in which the appointment of governors and teachers, and 
 the admission of scholars, should be uninfluenced by religious dis- 
 tinctions ; requiring only that the Bible or Testament should be 
 read, not as a book of elementary education, but for moral improve- 
 ment ; yet not subject to the explanation of any one during school 
 hours. The local centre of their union, as well as co-operation, was 
 in School-street, where a good popular school had existed since 
 1786. They “ ne’er had changed, nor wished to change, their place;” 
 nor had they aspired to become the dispensers of national bounty, 
 and would, perhaps, have been well content to move on “ in the 
 
 i 
 
114 
 
 even tenor of their way/’ unaffected by the smile of courts or the 
 applause of statesmen. Moreover, it is possible that it might 
 have been well for the real efficiency of their plans, and the final 
 success of their undertaking, as well as for the country chosen to be 
 the sphere of their exertions, had not the enjoyment of state patron- 
 age drawn them aside to more ostentatious display, more public 
 notoriety, and to become more the object of envy, and subject to the 
 contamination of bad company. But they were selected by the 
 government for the experiment of the principle which we have noted, 
 and which had been recommended by parliamentary commission, 
 and they acceded to the arrangement. A grant was made to them 
 of £6,980 of Irish currency. The patronage of the government 
 continued ; similar and increasing contributions were drawn from 
 the public purse for their support : and private benevolence, not 
 appearing so necessary, ceased to be valued or solicited. Three 
 years the government money was received, and expended in the 
 erection of model schools, apartments, offices, and a warehouse for 
 stationery, &c. In 1817, they took possession of their new establish- 
 ment in Kildare-place; and School-street school-room was again 
 occupied by an institution of a more private character. An important 
 department of the operations in Kildare-place, were the model- 
 schools for training masters, and qualifying school assistants for 
 town and country. Nor was this more necessary than the publica- 
 tion of a sufficient variety of moral, instructive, and entertaining 
 books, fitted for supplanting works of a most objectionable nature, 
 in wide circulation among the people. 
 
 In the three great branches of their procedure, they advanced with 
 perhaps as much singleness of purpose and purity of administration 
 as could be expected from a body of men appropriating tens of 
 thousands of government money, and who themselves were unsala- 
 ried servants of the people. Their schools have increased from year 
 to year ; the attendance at their schools has steadily advanced ; the 
 number of their teachers, male and female, whose services are 
 accounted efficient and acceptable throughout the country, has also 
 received continual accessions ; and the publications of the society 
 have accumulated to a respectable collection, containing a variety of 
 useful knowledge and profitable entertainment, very different from 
 what formerly composed the village or town school library in Ire- 
 land — when The history of the seven wise masters and mistresses of 
 Rome, The seven champions of Christendom, The seven wonders of 
 the world. The Irish rogues and rapparees, The garden of love. The 
 
115 
 
 school of delight. Nocturnal novels. The pleasant art of money catch- 
 ing, and such other books, occupied the attention of the scholars who 
 had acquired a taste for reading. By the efforts of this Society, these 
 works have been displaced by books of voyages, travels, natural his- 
 tory, national history, and biography, besides poetry, rural economy, 
 and almost every species of moral instruction. The different kinds of 
 works published amount to as many as a hundred ; and the copies 
 sold or circulated, of all these, are stated to be 1,465,000, of all 
 sizes. As many as 2,390 masters and mistresses have been sent out 
 to all parts of the country ; while it is stated, in the report for 1832, 
 that they have 1,621 schools, containing 137,639 pupils. Their 
 numbers average for the last seven years 1520 schools, and 114,890 
 children, or about 75 scholars in each school. Our statement is 
 deduced from their own documents; and, though we would give 
 them credit for upright intentions and no wish to exaggerate, it is 
 possible that numbers in the minor details have been over-rated, we 
 shall allow 35 per cent, for this deduction, and suppose the children 
 to be about 90,000 in all their schools. An anxiety to introduce the 
 sacred scriptures into their schools ; co-operation in the support of 
 of nearly 450 schools, with societies of either sectarian character or 
 of proselyting tendency ; and the violation of that rule which pro- 
 hibited notes or comments on the scriptures in their books, or in 
 their instructions tendered during school hours, by some zealous but 
 neither very honest nor very prudent coadjutors; added, in all pro- 
 bability, to the natural tendency of a liberal and enlightened system 
 of education ; stirred up the suspicion and hostility of the Roman 
 Catholic priests, and drew down upon the society petitions — re- 
 proaching and exaggerating accusations, which rendered it impos- 
 sible and unsuitable that any popular government should continue 
 pecuniary patronage for its support : so that after, perhaps, two 
 hundred and fifty thousand pounds had been expended from the 
 public treasury in the course of fifteen years, the parliamentary grant 
 has been withdrawn from the Kildare-place Society. Some of the 
 most liberal friends of the institution will not regret this result, and 
 the probable effect will be that their operations will be less shackled, 
 and their measures less characterised by temporizing expediency ; 
 while with prudent management, having already laid in a good 
 foundation for the time to come, in buildings, schools, school- 
 masters, books, experience, &c., they may proceed with more effi- 
 ciency, and more union of effort, with really good and active men, 
 than could ever have been done under the auspices of any govern- 
 
116 
 
 ment. Nor need they envy any other association in the receipt of 
 national support. Let them rather do the good they can, than 
 murmur for the gain placed beyond their enjoyment. 
 
 Another mode of applying the money of the treasury to the 
 education of the people of this country was adopted in 1819, by a 
 fund being placed at the disposal of the Lord-Lieutenant, for the 
 building of school houses, &c. It seems that about £35,000 had 
 been thus appropriated till the year 1825, by about 430 grants for 
 so many different applicants, of whom only 12 were Roman Ca- 
 tholics. I have heard it said, that some priests so contrived that 
 these erections became additions to their chapels. They could not 
 be numerous, surely ; it has not been a frequent resource in aid of 
 the people who most need help. No schools, or masters, appear 
 to have been taken under the regular patronage of this fund ; and 
 we suppose it to have ceased. 
 
 The new Board of Education, composed of seven commissioners, — 
 two Roman Catholic, two Presbyterian, and three Episcopalian, — 
 rendering their services, with one exception, gratuitously, and dispens- 
 ing the support of the nation to all parties in the state, is the last effort 
 in which the government of this country has exerted its power and 
 deliberation to promote the improvement of the people. This is a 
 further step of approximation, in the liberality of the government, 
 towards the advanced demands of enlightened and less restricted 
 policy and principles, as cherished among the people. If the prin- 
 ciple be not established a priori in the essence of government, that 
 the people should lead and the rulers follow, it is a maxim well 
 authenticated, and clearly deducible from experience, that rulers 
 require to be led : all governments are less progressive than their 
 people, and the sluggish movements of the former are stimulated 
 by the energies and demands of the community. The vox populi 
 is thus practically the vox Dei , however startling the proposition 
 appear to the lovers of monarchical prerogative or aristocratical 
 pre-eminence. The demands of the people in this country have 
 been partially heard, and the new Board is an attempt at com- 
 promising the controversy; it is a yielding, to pacify, and to 
 cause strife to cease. Whoever holds the reins of government 
 must adopt some such measure. So many spoils have been here- 
 to forewarned off by the high churchman ; so many grants have 
 been made, to be divided according to the good pleasure of Pro- 
 testants ; so large, so exorbitant, and, alas ! so ruinously severe 
 have been the exactions for the maintenance of the church by law 
 
117 
 
 established, while her members form so discrepant a minority, com- 
 pared to the dissentients, that a government wishing to have even 
 the semblance of justice, far more desiring to confer something 
 like equal benefits on all, and to establish a righteous principle, 
 untainted by persecution for conscience* sake, could do nothing 
 less than, if grants shall continue to be conferred for educational 
 purposes, to bestow them on all who would receive them, irrespec- 
 tive of creeds and of abstract opinions. It might have been better, 
 as a dernier ressort, and less open to the objections of a Protestant 
 party, cradled under the shadow of ascendancy, to withhold contri- 
 bution from all. 
 
 As a general principle, this might have been the wisest policy, 
 and the safest, where there is such violent opposition between the 
 adverse parties in the state ; but much preparation was requisite, 
 before there could be a departure so extreme from what the Pro- 
 testants themselves had been used to or were prepared for. To have 
 withheld it from the purposes of education, and left every party to 
 provide instruction for their youth as they could, would have been 
 mere expediency, unless on the recognition of the general principle 
 for which most Dissenters contend ; and to have defended it on 
 principle would have involved the question of ecclesiastical allow- 
 ances, benefices, regium donum, or government salaries. To with- 
 draw all aid from Roman Catholics for the improvement of their 
 youth, merely because they could not agree with Protestants on 
 their principles, and to continue the revenues of the church, not- 
 withstanding that they were exacted from the dissentient peasantry 
 by legal process, municipal authority, or the power of the sword, 
 would indeed be the daring of a madman, and must be accom- 
 plished by the physical enforcement of a standing army. The 
 new Board has old prejudices to contend against, strong prepos- 
 sessions, conscientious scruples, ignorance, bigotry, and political 
 partizanship ; and if it has, or shall have, achieved any good for 
 the country, we must ascribe it, under the blessing of Providence, 
 to the good that is inherent in the great principle on which it has 
 been formed. If the Protestant clergy had been in their genera- 
 tion a little wiser, they would have come quietly into the measure, 
 and lent their best energies to render effectual what was good and 
 liberal, and withstood what they disapproved or thought would be 
 injurious. If they had been too forward, they would have excited 
 suspicion — all that has hitherto been done by them avowedly for 
 purposes of education having had too much a sinister aspect; but 
 
118 
 
 if they had acted when called upon, and exerted themselves in 
 their sphere ; if they had proved themselves the shepherds of the 
 men of Israel, and not of silly sheep ; if they had sought to feed 
 their flock with knowledge, and not with authority, with dogmas, 
 and bigotry, the effect might have been great and glorious. How- 
 ever, what has been done may be turned to good account. 
 
 A thousand applications had, six months ago, been made to the 
 new Board, signed by 15,000 requisitionists, 6,000 of whom were 
 Protestants, and 161 Protestant Ministers. Of these applications, 
 700 had been granted, and there are now 100,000 children in the 
 schools under the patronage of the Board ; 75 applications had 
 then been refused, for various reasons, of which 17 were because it 
 was proposed the schools should be held in places of worship; 200 
 applications remained under consideration. As soon as a school 
 under the Board is established in a neighbourhood, numerous 
 applications proceed from the vicinity. School books and works of 
 elementary instruction are both under preparation and issuing from 
 the press ; while model schools are in operation for qualifying 
 teachers, both male and female ; and it is not at all improbable 
 that the experience and labours of the Kildare-place Schools may 
 be of great service to the members and subordinate agents of the 
 Government Board. Is there any reason why they should not 
 both labour and co-operate for the good of the people, and the 
 one help the other ? If the attempt shall accomplish in any mea- 
 sure the peace and union of diverse parties, who have hitherto con- 
 tended for supremacy, a great good will be gained ; if it advance 
 the general and well-conducted education of the people — if it 
 improve and increase the knowledge of the population — if it act 
 as a stimulant and corrective to other systems, the originators and 
 labourers will deserve, and will ultimately receive, the acknowledg- 
 ments of the community and the praises of all impartial men, and 
 have their names enrolled among the benefactors of their country, 
 the promoters of intelligence, and the persecuted sufferers in a 
 good cause ; and those who maligned, and for temporary purposes 
 made abuse of their plan a stalking horse to vulgar popularity and 
 party warfare, will either be forgotten, or, being ashamed of them- 
 selves, will be forgiven and made partakers of the general benefit. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EDUCATION CONDUCTED BY BENEVOLENT ASSO- 
 CIATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES.— IS EDUCA- 
 TION FROM CHARITABLE FUNDS CALCULATED 
 TO SUSTAIN MORAL CHARACTER P 
 
 A few remarks shall suffice on the benevolent institutions formed 
 either in Ireland, or in England for Ireland ; and chiefly of the 
 London Hibernian Society, the Sunday School Society, the Irish 
 Society, the Baptist Irish Evangelical Society, the Methodist 
 Schools, and Erasmus Smith’s Foundation. There are minor 
 associations and institutions, whose operations and details are 
 beyond our inquiry. The London Hibernian Society had its 
 origin in the year 1800, by the association of some benevolent 
 persons, who, among other measures for effecting what they 
 thought desirable in Ireland, proposed the employment of minis- 
 ters of religion and the establishment of schools, accompanied by 
 the circulation of the scriptures, or purely religious publications. 
 We may assert of this, and of all similar benevolent institutions for 
 Ireland, that they are standing witnesses of the inefficiency of the 
 dear-bought Establishment. Experience taught them that a com- 
 bination of churchmen and dissenters could not effectually employ 
 preachers, except of some exclusive denomination ; and, in the 
 year 1814, the employment of such agents being entirely relin- 
 quished, their exertions were more energetically directed to the 
 establishment and conduct of day schools, adult schools, and 
 Sunday schools ; not a few, however, of their schools, or of schools 
 taken under their patronage, were connected with other societies; 
 indeed we have been told of schools enrolled on the lists of three 
 different associations, and receiving aid from each, while the num- 
 ber of their pupils was claimed by all the three, and published to 
 the world by each, forming a much larger aggregate to the eye of 
 the benevolent contributor than really existed, of pupils under the 
 influence of Christian education. 
 
120 
 
 This abuse may have arisen from an oversight — it may have 
 received countenance from the indiscreetness of well-meaning and 
 honest persons ; but we fear its extent can be traced to the love of 
 money, which is the root of all evil, the avarice of individuals, and 
 to the tendency in Ireland of making every good thing a job. Oh ! 
 what a leprosy is this jobbing in that country ! It cleaves to, it 
 spreads over, it vitiates almost every attempt for the amelioration 
 of the people, the extension of knowledge, and the promotion of 
 science. Another defect of the Hibernian School Society, espe- 
 cially under the administration of the late M. P. for Dundalk, was 
 a violent tendency to monopolise the credit of every good thing 
 done, or to be done, from the Giant’s Causeway to Cape Clear, and 
 almost to deny any knowledge as possessed by other institutions of 
 what should be done. So strong was this disposition of the zealous 
 partizan, that, what will scarcely be believed now, he assailed with 
 a bitterness and a rancour almost unaccountable the proceedings 
 of the Kildare-place Association ; but men are changeable beings, 
 and there is a reason for every thing. A good deal was said by 
 the officials of this society about proselytism and conversion ; and 
 they professed to disclaim the one, while they boasted of, and 
 eagerly sought, the other. It is not easy to distinguish the differ- 
 ence to a cursory reader ; and Lieutenant Gordon might as well 
 have left the matter sub umbra. In their report for 1832, it is 
 stated that there are in connexion with this society 1569 schools, 
 and 90,085 scholars; but this includes Sunday, adult, and day 
 schools ; and as the same pupils attend, in many cases, the day 
 and Sunday or adult schools, the number appears greater than it 
 is ; they, however, reckon 73,655 scholars altogether : if we may 
 make allowances, and reduce the number to 50,000 scholars, inde- 
 pendent of all other institutions, we shall not greatly fail of the truth. 
 They have also 53 inspectors and scripture readers, besides local 
 patrons ; their income for the same year exceeded their expendi- 
 ture a little, and amounted to £9,237 7s. Id. 
 
 The Sunday School Society for Ireland was established in 
 1809: it assumes no control over the internal arrangements of 
 the schools in connexion with it — kind admonition and advice is 
 its only interference ; and the agents and managers labour to pro- 
 mote the establishment of, and give every facility for conducting, 
 schools kept on Sunday ; they disseminate the most approved 
 plans for the management of such schools, and supply them with 
 spelling books, copies of the scriptures, or extracts therefrom. No 
 
121 
 
 grants of money are made to schools in this connexion. The. 
 teachers are all gratuitous labourers ; and while the acquisition of 
 the elementary knowledge of letters is an important end of their 
 efforts, the principal and well-understood aim of these benevolent 
 individuals, so engaged, is to extend the knowledge of the Sacred 
 Scriptures, the principles which they deem of heavenly origin, 
 and fitted to make men wise to salvation. They are of great 
 benefit, too, in bringing the more remote sections of society into 
 closer converse and intercourse, so as to excite and cherish the 
 better sympathies of our nature in society. They have brought 
 into circulation not only many copies and portions of the sacred 
 volume, but also spelling-books, and a work on education, entitled 
 " Hints for conducting Sunday Schools.” The numbers of schools 
 and pupils have rapidly increased, and the effects are not less 
 pleasing than unexpected. The Society receives aid from friends 
 and associations in England and Scotland, and has been in corre- 
 pondence with educational institutions for mutual counsel and 
 encouragement. 
 
 The total number of schools connected with this Society, 1st 
 January, 1833, was 2,642, attended by 19,142 gratuitous teachers, 
 and 206,717 scholars; of this last number, 112,256 are reported 
 to be reading the Bible or Testament ; 35,239 are declared to be 
 adults above 15 years of age; while more than a hundred thousand 
 scholars are said to be dependent on these schools for any know- 
 ledge of letters, not having access for instruction to daily schools. 
 Since the origin of this Society, the managers have granted, or sold 
 at reduced prices, 1,008 roll and minute books; 4,414 books of 
 hints, &c. ; 57,147 Freeman’s cards for adults; 197,153 alphabets; 
 740,036 spelling books; 112 scripture extracts; 327,030 New 
 Testaments ; 65,236 Bibles, for the use of the schools. The num- 
 ber of teachers has been increasing ; and it is interesting to observe, 
 that schools are now taught, in many instances, by young persons 
 who once themselves, as scholars, received instructions in these 
 schools ; while in many places meetings of the teachers are held, 
 under the superintendence of suitable instructors, when the sub- 
 ject for instruction on the ensuing Sabbath is examined and com- 
 mented on, so as to secure the general efficiency of the system and 
 teachers in their laudable exertions. 
 
 There are doubtless abuses in the ecclesiastical establishment of 
 Wales, as there will be in all such corporations ; as there are also 
 in the Church of Scotland, among the Highland Presbyteries ; and 
 
1*22 
 
 we may find here and there men bearing the rank, and receiving 
 the emoluments, of parochial ministers, who either do not know the 
 Welsh or the Gaelic language so as to preach in it to the people, 
 or who, having merely learned it to accommodate them for a pre- 
 sentation sermon, have no pleasure, and perform no duty, in it. 
 But the Dissenters in England, and the Presbyterians in Scotland, 
 make ample amends for this, by maintaining in the English towns 
 numerous Welsh chapels and Welsh preachers, and Gaelic chapels 
 and ministers, for the people who sojourn among them; Welsh 
 and Gaelic schools, too, may be found in the low lands, and in 
 English cities. Nay, the Welsh have carried their generous regard 
 for their wandering countrymen so far as to establish services in 
 Welsh in the city of Dublin. 
 
 Now it is computed by his Majesty’s Commissioners for educa- 
 tional Inquiry, that the number of Irish who employ the ancient 
 language of this country exclusively is not less than 500,000 peo- 
 ple ; and that at least a million more, though they have some 
 knowledge of the English, and are able to employ it for the pur- 
 poses of traffic, make use of their native tongue on all other occa- 
 sions, as the natural vehicle of their thoughts. I have seen among 
 such people the confidence inspired in the political leader, and 
 the attention rendered to the instructor, who addressed them in 
 their own tongue. Well, how many ministers of the established 
 church use this natural instrument for parochial instruction among 
 their own people in Ireland ? Not one. How many schools under 
 the auspices of the church ? I cannot find one in all the report 
 of the Commissioners. I do not see the appropriation of church 
 revenues, bounteous as they have been, or the application of col- 
 legiate resources ; neither ministers, fellows, professors, scholars, or 
 schools, by law or by practice, in connexion with the established 
 church of Ireland. They have indeed one clergyman who uses 
 that language for instruction, but he displays his talent in London ! 
 There are three or four clergymen in the country who can speak 
 Irish fluently, for it was their mother’s vernacular dialect ; but 
 they cannot, or will not preach it. This would either be unfashion- 
 able, or their living or curacy is not in a country thickly peopled 
 with those who understand the native Irish. Shame upon the 
 church of England in Ireland! if ever she perishes, and the omens 
 have a threatening aspect, it will be by her own folly, as a felo de 
 se, and her monumental tablet may be so inscribed, for the 
 instruction of future ages. 
 
123 
 
 Among all the objects of a well-timed charity, what one more 
 legitimate could be selected than the supply of this want P A 
 society has been formed, whose object is to promote scriptural 
 education (why not a society to promote general education? ) by 
 the establishment of schools for the Irish language, wherein the 
 Irish peasant shall be enabled to peruse the scriptures in his own 
 tongue. It is now in the 16th year of its operations. The good 
 men in connexion with this institution seem very solicitous to dis- 
 claim any attempt to perpetuate the Irish language, (why not, if 
 the people like it ? ) but they should leave that to the operation of 
 extending knowdedge. It has been found that in the process of 
 learning the native Irish, the scholars have not only acquired a 
 desire for, but have made great progress in, English reading. It 
 is a natural consequence of an active mind, that where a taste for 
 reading has been infused in a language ill supplied with literature, 
 other sources will be pursued ; and so it has proved that the study 
 of Irish creates a desire for acquaintance with the English. The 
 business of their society is conducted by a committee of members 
 and other officers; but it is a fundamental rule of the constitution, 
 that none but such members as belong to the established church 
 shall be appointed on the managing committee. The funds arise 
 from voluntary contributions; and were for the year ending 
 March, 1833, £3,248 Is. 4d. They have 370 schools, and nearly 
 eleven thousand scholars, who are chiefly adults ; sometimes taught 
 at their own houses in the evenings, or on holidays. This is some- 
 thing, but, alas ! what is it to the 500,000 who use this language 
 exclusively ? What a neglected country has this been in matters 
 the most vital; every one seeking his gain from his quarter: but 
 general beneficence, on wise and worthy laws, seems beyond the 
 reach of philanthropists who have sought Ireland’s weal. 
 
 The Baptist Irish Evangelical Society has schools established 
 in three districts of Ireland, and professes to have succeeded in its 
 endeavours. This Society was formed in 1 814. It is an avowedly 
 religious association, and is maintained by the contributions of 
 that peculiar denomination, aided by the subscriptions of others, 
 who generally approve of the fundamental principle, that the scrip- 
 tures alone should be taught in their schools. The managers have 
 encouraged the increase of native Irish schools, in the parts where 
 that language is spoken. Ninety-one week day schools are sup- 
 ported by its friends, and they are said to contain ten thousand 
 children : besides 25 evening schools for adults during the winter 
 
124 
 
 months, attended by sometimes about 700 persons. Some of the 
 present school-masters received their own education in the schools 
 of this society. 
 
 The Methodist Missionary Society has maintained schools in 
 various parts of Ireland, which they regard as valuable auxiliaries 
 in the promotion of knowledge and piety ; the scriptures are con- 
 stantly read in them, accompanied by catechetical instruction ; the 
 common rudiments of learning are afforded, though, in a majority 
 of cases, the poverty of the parents will not permit a long course of 
 education. There are (they say) 20 schools, and they report that 
 the children receiving instruction in them are 5,000. The schools 
 are supported by the Methodist Mission Fund, and superintended 
 by a minister of their connexion, who visits and pays the school- 
 masters, according to the proficiency, and the work done. 
 
 The Moravians maintain schools at their stations, chiefly for the 
 members of their own denomination. They have single sisters 
 and single brethren, whose labours are carefully directed to the 
 promotion of knowledge among the rising generation. At Grace 
 Hill, an extensive and respectable boarding-school is kept up, for 
 the education of the better classes of their own flock, or others 
 who may comply with their rules. 
 
 The name of Erasmus Smith, an inhabitant, and said to have 
 been Alderman, of the city of London, is intimately interwoven in 
 the history and interests of national education in Ireland. The 
 abundance of a rich and beneficent stream has long flowed from 
 the spring which he pierced : if the waters have not made glad the 
 inhabitants of the land, and turned the wilderness into a fruitful 
 field, it is neither to be ascribed to the illiberality of his heart, nor 
 the contractedness of his views ; neither to the penuriousness of his 
 hand, nor the limitation of his desires. Many a name has been 
 emblazoned in the annals of the country, and engraved upon 
 monumental memorials, for the applause of coming ages, whose 
 owner less deserved a record and a tribute from his fellow-men. 
 If the consecration of wealth and influence, the reward of good 
 deeds done for learning, and the recompense of services rendered 
 to the literary interests of mankind, could in any measure be 
 appreciated, and a suitable return contributed, in the ages which 
 follow the benefactor, the only monument worthy of Erasmus 
 Smith, which a nation could fitly dedicate, would be a Colle- 
 giate Establishment, under the auspices of his name, as a liberal 
 and generous competitor for honourable and useful distinction 
 
125 
 
 with Trinity College, Dublin. “ The works or acts of merit 
 towards learning are conversant about three objects ; the places of 
 learning, the books of learning, and the persons of the learned. 
 For as water, whether it be the dew of heaven or the springs of 
 the earth, does scatter, and lose itself in the ground except it be 
 collected into some receptacle ; so this excellent liquor of know- 
 ledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration, or spring 
 from human sense, would soon perish and vanish into oblivion, if 
 it were not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places 
 appointed, as Universities, Colleges, and Schools, for the receipt 
 and comforting of the same/’ This was the care and merit of 
 Erasmus Smith. I should be happy to know more of the history 
 and character of a man so honourable among the patrons of learn- 
 ing, that I might be the means of promoting the renown of so 
 worthy a citizen, and engage the interest of my reader on his 
 behalf. I cannot but conclude that it would surely have added to 
 the interest and value of the report of “ the Commissioners of 
 Irish Education Enquiry,” had they informed us who this patron 
 of education in Ireland was, and by what principles his benevolent 
 institutions were to be regulated. Whether it was for his attach- 
 ment to the Stuart race, or that his predecessor in the estates was 
 involved in the rebellion of 1641, it is not easy to determine; he 
 may only have succeeded by inheritance, as collateral heir to the 
 estates. I cannot learn that he was ever at any time a resident in 
 Ireland. But it appears that the lands which he entailed by 
 charter for the purposes of education, and which are now possessed 
 by his representatives, were seized and sequestered on account of 
 the rebellion. In any case it would be difficult to detail, or trace 
 through their varied succession, the changes which have come 
 over the occupants of land in Ireland. The Commissioners for 
 settling the state of that country in 1668, under Charles II. dis- 
 covered and adjudged that the lands now deemed the estates of 
 the corporation, chartered for effecting the purposes of the will of 
 the testator, and situated in various distant counties (they have 
 estates in Tipperary, Sligo, Westmeath, Limerick, Galway, Clare, 
 and King’s County), were the property of Erasmus Smith, or 
 those under whom he devised. Their decision may have been 
 most impartial and correct, and if all their six hundred adjudi- 
 cations, out of the four thousand referred to them, had been 
 devoted to promote the sectarian education of the people on the 
 principles of episcopal protestantism as exclusively as this one. 
 
126 
 
 these commissioners ought to be ranked as perpetual patrons, or 
 grand masters (could their names now be discovered), of the 
 Orange lodges of Ireland. I will neither involve Erasmus Smith 
 nor the Commissioners in this censure, for I cannot satisfy myself 
 that they deserve blame, considering the circumstances in which 
 they were placed, and the changes which have succeeded. 
 
 A charter was obtained by Erasmus Smith for the appropri- 
 ation of these lands to the maintenance of Grammar Schools, and 
 for other charitable purposes, in the year 1669. This charter 
 endued him and his executors with full power, licence, and 
 authority to establish three free Grammar Schools, one in Drog- 
 heda, another in Galway, and a third in Tipperary. He, or his 
 representatives, the governors of the schools, or any seven of them, 
 are empowered to place so many, not exceeding twenty, poor 
 children, in each or any of them, as shall seem convenient ; 
 besides the children of Erasmus Smith’s tenants, whose numbers 
 are not limited for admission. The charter directs the appoint- 
 ment of a school-master and usher to each school, who are to 
 teach writing and accounts, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew lan- 
 guages, and to fit their scholars for the university, if desired. 
 Thirty-two persons are incorporated, seven of whom, ex officiis, 
 are the Chancellor, the Primate, the Archbishop of Dublin, the 
 Provost of Trinity College, and the three Chief Judges, into a 
 body politic and corporate, to be called “ The Governors of the 
 Schools founded by Erasmus Smith, Esq.” The vacancies occur- 
 ring in this body are to be filled up by the surviving governors, 
 or greater number of them, assembled for the purpose of such 
 election. The corporation is also invested with power to purchase 
 and hold lands, to sue and be sued, to use a common seal, &c. 
 They are empowered to choose and appoint school-masters, 
 ushers, scholars, and officers for the said free-schools ; but if they 
 have not supplied vacancies within six months, the King may 
 elect successors to the unoccupied situations. They can order, 
 visit, direct, place, displace, censure, or punish the said masters, 
 &c. according to such rules as may have been competently devised 
 and established. The archbishop or bishop of the diocese, is 
 required to approve such school-masters or ushers, appointed by 
 these governors, on their subscribing the two first canons of the 
 Church of Ireland. The governors were authorised to receive the 
 lands, tenements, &c. of Erasmus Smith, to be employed by them 
 and their successors for the maintenance of the said free-schools. 
 
127 
 
 and the other charitable purposes devised by the benefactor; 
 deducting one hundred pounds annually for Christ’s Hospital, 
 London ; and to receive or purchase other lands, so as they did 
 not exceed £2,000 per annum. A treasurer is appointed, or 
 ought to be, annually, who receives the rents, profits, &c., and has 
 two-and-a-half per cent on his receipts: it is required that his 
 receipts and disbursements be exhibited before the Primate, the 
 Chancellor, and three chief Judges, or any two of them. The 
 school-masters at first were to receive one hundred marks, or about 
 £70, and the ushers £20 yearly. The overplus of the rents, 
 profits, &c. is directed to be applied, first, to repair and beautify the 
 schools and school-houses ; secondly, to the establishment of a 
 Hebrew or other learned lecture in Trinity College, at £30 per 
 annum; thirdly, to the binding out of poor children to be appren- 
 tices to protestant masters, and to the clothing of them while in 
 the schools ; and to such other charitable uses as Erasmus Smith 
 had appointed. The arrangements made by Erasmus Smith, and 
 his rules or orders for the management of the schools, are fixed, 
 and may not be contravened or abrogated by subsequent Governors. 
 
 In 1724, in the tenth year of the reign of George I, an act was 
 passed for further application of the rents and profits of the same 
 Estates ; by which were instituted three new Fellowships in Tri- 
 nity College, Dublin ; two public Lectures were established, one 
 of oratory and history, and the other of natural and experimental 
 philosophy, with salaries of £35 per annum. Thirty-five exhibi- 
 tions for poor students of Trinity College were founded, and 
 directed to be continued to the students holding the same till 
 provided for, or till they are of the standing of A.M. New build- 
 ings in the College were to be erected, from the cash then in the 
 Treasurer’s hands ; and an arrangement was made with the Blue 
 Coat School in Dublin, so that twenty boys should be admitted 
 there on Erasmus Smith’s foundation : this number has since been 
 doubled. The Governors were also empowered to appropriate 
 any increase of their rents or profits to some public work or use 
 in the College or Blue Coat School ; to the putting out more poor 
 children to school or as apprentices ; and for founding one or 
 more English Schools, as they should think fit or convenient. 
 In consequence of these new powers, the Governors appropriated 
 funds for another Grammar School, which was established at Ennis, 
 County Clare. Other Professorships have been founded in Trinity 
 College ; a Charter School at Sligo, with an extensive farm at- 
 
128 
 
 taehed, and English Schools throughout the country. The receipts, 
 from rents and profits of these lands, twenty years ago, amounted 
 to £7,584. The Governors had also vested money, surplus receipts* 
 in the Funds, bringing in interest per annum of £1,315; alto- 
 gether, £8,899. 
 
 The enquiries of the Board of Education at that time stirred up 
 the dormant energies of these authorities, and they determined to 
 build a new school at Galway, which should cost £10,000 : we 
 have been, we believe, in that school ; £800 or £1,000, we should 
 think quite sufficient as the cost of such erection. Schools are 
 instituted in several parishes in Dublin, being built at rather a 
 large expense. They resolved, also, that whenever any proprietor 
 of land is desirous of having a school established on his estate, 
 provided the situation is otherwise eligible, on his conveying to 
 them in perpetuity a certain portion of land, not exceeding two 
 acres, to contribute a sum not more than £300 towards erecting a 
 school -house thereon, and to further grant an endowment to the 
 master of £30 per annum. It may be that all the Bye-laws 
 adopted by the Governors are in perfect harmony with the instruc- 
 tions of the Testator ; yet it is observable, that the Church cate- 
 chism is exclusively enjoined by them as a manual of religious 
 instruction, while Presbyterians are eligible to the schools, as well 
 as Roman Catholics. It is moreover an important fact, that 
 although Presbyterians are in Ireland equally numerous with pro- 
 testant Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics are six times more 
 numerous, of nine thousand pupils in these schools, it was stated 
 by the Commissioners of Irish Education Enquiry, that 4,215 
 were of the Church by law established ; 3,240 only of the Roman 
 Catholic ; and 2,560 of Presbyterian and other denominations. 
 Is this an equal or proportionate division P or is it agreeable to 
 the will of the testator? How many good things fall to the 
 portion of those who use religion by law ! I believe the present 
 authorities are all churchmen ; and no small share of the revenues 
 of this charity is absorbed in Trinity College, Dublin. There are 
 one hundred and twenty-five schools for more general instruction, 
 under the patronage of the Board. The number of children 
 attending these schools, as per a return lately made to Parliament, 
 was, on the 1st of November, 1832, found to be 10,990. 
 
 The governors found it expedient to alter the system on which 
 these schools are conducted, and to adopt such arrangements as 
 might tend to enforce a better and more effective education, to 
 
129 
 
 promote order, and ensure zealous and active exertion on the 
 part of the teachers ; and established other regulations than had 
 been acted on before. A regular system of inspection, and of 
 periodical reports, was commenced in 1829. Every teacher, on 
 his or her recommendation by patrons, was to be called to appear 
 before a committee, and, if deemed necessary, to go through a 
 course of instruction at one of the training-schools in Dublin, so 
 as that they might acquire a competent knowledge of the improved 
 methods of teaching. The fixed salaries of the teachers was 
 reduced to £20 per annum, and any subsequent increase was to 
 be paid in the shape of gratuities, not exceeding £10 at the end 
 of each year, for good conduct and strict attention to the rules of 
 the governors ; but dependent upon the state of improvement of 
 the schools, and the certificate of the inspector. An extra premium 
 of £10 each, and a letter of approbation from the governors, 
 should be awarded to the masters of the four best schools in each 
 inspectors list, according to his special recommendation : the 
 mistresses to be paid in the same proportion, but on a scale not so 
 high as the masters. For every £1 of fixed salary, the master or 
 mistress is bound to instruct one scholar gratis, if so many 
 should offer ; other scholars are required to pay as may be directed 
 by the superintending committee or local patron, but, if poor, at 
 a moderate rate. 
 
 The teachers of the English schools on this foundation must be 
 members of the established church, and exhibit to the inspectors 
 proofs of their regular attendance on divine worship in the respec- 
 tive parish churches, and of their having from time to time 
 received the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of 
 England. — O what a prostitution, what blind and sacrilegious 
 formality ! how can they prove that they have received the sacra- 
 ment? Must the priest officiating give his certificate? — Having 
 been instructed in the Kildare-place system of education, they 
 must be well acquainted with arithmetic, as well in its application 
 to surveying and mensuration, as to trade. The teachers must 
 not be engaged in any trade, business, or employment which can 
 interfere with their regular and punctual attendance at the school ; 
 nor hold more than three acres of land, which must be within 
 one mile of the school; neither must they have any private class 
 in the school, nor instruct any private pupil during school hours. 
 Rolls and registries must be kept, and regularly furnished, after 
 the plan of the Kildare-place schools. The salaries and gratuities, 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 it is said, will be withheld, unless the teachers read a portion of 
 the holy scriptures every day, and also cause a portion to be read 
 by the children who are capable, every day at 12 o’clock (Satur- 
 day excepted) ; it must also appear by the report of the inspector 
 that the children have been carefully instructed in the Scriptures, 
 so that they understand what they read, the sense being explained 
 in plain language by the teacher, without entering into doctrinal, 
 controversial, or abstruse matters ! The Bible is never to be used 
 for the purpose of teaching spelling or reading, but for religious 
 instruction only. — Is it provided that the teacher shall be com- 
 petent to avoid what is here pointed out, and to impart what is 
 here required ? — Every Saturday, at 12 o’clock, the children shall 
 be instructed in a Church of England catechism, and no other 
 shall be taught or admitted into the school ; the parents, however, 
 may direct or withhold the attendance of the children to this 
 exercise. All books admitted to the schools must be approved by 
 the governors. The system of monitors is also recognised, and 
 practised on the plan pursued by the Kildare-place Association. 
 
 Such is an outline of the plan embraced by these governors for 
 the English schools on Erasmus Smith’s foundation. Minor 
 details, as to hours of attendance, allowances for school requisites, 
 and school repairs, would only extend the description beyond our 
 limits. Topics of discussion of great importance, and deeply 
 interesting to the community, present themselves on the face of 
 this summary of the schools established on this foundation. We 
 might ask, Has it been a good and sound policy, has it worked 
 effectively, to apply so many mechanical details for the advance- 
 ment of Protestantism? Was it wise to enjoin that boys should 
 be apprenticed exclusively to Protestants; or that competition in 
 the claims of general reputation, excellence in handy-work, skill 
 and efficiency in training, should be exclusively confined to such 
 denominations? Are mere nominally Protestant masters better 
 tradesmen, more competent teachers, or more respectable mem- 
 bers of society than other respectable citizens throughout the 
 country. Will conformity to the ordinances of the parish church 
 qualify a man to teach the English language, writing, and ac- 
 counts, or to be the spiritual, the moral adviser of the children 
 attending the schools ? What has been the general effect of these 
 schools, of the chief of them, in Galway, for instance, in Tip- 
 perary, or in Ennis ? Have these schools, endowed with funds 
 most liberal, with resources perennially flowing, secured by law. 
 
131 
 
 and governed by the prelacy and the judges of the land, tended to 
 exalt the character of educational institutions, to increase the 
 demand for education, by providing a good supply ? Will they 
 serve as an experiment to warrant the introduction of some uni. 
 versal system, under legislative enactment, to be administered by 
 mitred heads, executive magistracy, or chartered boards? If this 
 failed, if these extraordinary motives to industry, which it is insi- 
 nuated, should be applied to stimulate a demand for education, 
 have not promoted education, by awakening a demand for instruc- 
 tion, shall we despise the spontaneous operation of the ordinary 
 motives which in all other things stimulate men to industry ? On 
 what element of the moral and social system, in this country, shall 
 we lay the burden, the guilt, and the anathema of mankind, that 
 Ireland should have enjoyed so many ostensible opportunities of 
 improvement, so many professed means for general education, and 
 should yet remain a moral wilderness, a spiritual waste, a political 
 pestilence, a cave of Eolus, and a sea of troubles ? We should be 
 far, very far indeed, from imputing to the mere introduction of the 
 sacred scriptures into the various protestant educational establish- 
 ments and systems of instruction, under proper auspices and in 
 competent hands, any share of the disappointment or failure which 
 has followed past efforts. We believe that a patient and devout 
 study of that volume will surely promote the truest nobleness of 
 mind. Coming with a mind previously prepared, and a heart 
 embued with the love of truth, and of all good beings, the student 
 will make rapid strides towards improvement ; the scholars may 
 expect that such a course will be as “the path of the just, which 
 shineth more and more unto the perfect day ; ” and will find ex- 
 perimentally that to scale the heights of heaven, to behold the Sun 
 of eternal truth, and receive his rays; to grasp the things of an ever- 
 lasting age, and to be filled with all the fulness of God ; to receive 
 the first principles of heavenly science ; to soar on the wings of 
 contemplation, aided by the breath of the infinite Spirit ; to explore 
 the tracts of uncreated light, and dive into the things which are 
 displayed in heavenly places by Christ Jesus ; to be permitted to 
 look into the unseen world, and peruse the records of the New 
 Jerusalem; to be enabled, by an infallible standard, more truly 
 unerring than any mathematical axiom, to weigh and compare the 
 things of redeeming love, and to live as seeing him who is invisible, 
 are most assuredly calculated to elevate the mind of any mortal. 
 But surely no feeling should be more delicately and carefully che- 
 
132 
 
 rished than a regard for Divine Truth ; nor should the course of 
 any element be more prudently directed than the precious waters 
 of heavenly knowledge, the overflowing of that fountain which rises 
 beneath the throne of Jehovah, the meanderings of that river, the 
 streams whereof make glad the city of our God. Fiery and poli- 
 tical zeal, carnal and partizan controversy, when put forth in such 
 a cause, are as impure and unconsecrated as were the rash hands 
 of Uzzah, who, because he presumptuously ventured to stay the 
 trembling ark, was smitten of the Lord, that he died. Treasury 
 influence, legislative enactment, or penal statutes may indeed en- 
 force unwilling profession, and obtain such offerings as the torn, 
 and the lame, and the sick: but with such sacrifices God cannot be 
 well pleased ; while the people will say. What a weariness is it ! 
 and they will snuff at it : till God will send a curse among them, 
 and curse their blessings, corrupt their seed, spread dung upon 
 their faces, even the dung of their solemn feasts, the vain mockery 
 of their pretended worship. But if, added to all these things, we 
 trust to the exposition of incompetent hirelings, and the formal 
 readings and literal explanations of unqualified and carnal teach- 
 ers, we shall be holding forth censers filled with strange fire, 
 warranting the rebellion of those who would resist the accredited 
 servants of God, and may receive the reward of unrighteousness, 
 and perish in the gainsaying of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 
 
 It would be an unpardonable omission to leave out of our view 
 the Cork Institution, the Belfast Academy, the Blue Coat School, 
 the Royal Dublin Society, and Trinity College, Dublin ; but it 
 would be so manifestly unjust to these institutions to discuss their 
 merits in a few lines, that I shall reserve them till another, but not 
 distant opportunity. 
 
 There remain to be stated, the voluntary and pay schools, 
 throughout the country. Of these, we find there were, in 1826, 
 schools wholly maintained by individuals, 322, containing upwards 
 of 13,600 scholars; pay schools, unconnected with societies, 9,352, 
 containing about 400,000 pupils ; strictly Roman Catholic female 
 schools, attached to Nunneries, 46, educating about 7,500 children ; 
 Christian Brotherhood and other religious orders, 24 schools, num- 
 bering about 5,500 scholars ; and day schools supported by sub- 
 scription, 350, containing nearly 34,000 pupils ; giving of what 
 we may designate by denomination of the teachers and patrons, 
 Roman Catholic charity schools, 420, in which 47,000 pupils were 
 receiving daily education. 
 
133 
 
 At the time to which we have referred, 1826, the inquiry of the 
 Commissioners shewed that there were, independent of Sunday 
 schools, more than 560,000 scholars in the four provinces of Ire- 
 land, attending 11,829 schools. This was nearly treble the num- 
 ber exhibited in 1812. If we have not exceeded our data, we 
 have found that, at this time, there may be, deducting some who 
 are connected with more than one society, 
 
 Schools. Scholars. 
 
 Roman Catholic Charity Schools... 420 .. 47,000 
 
 Pay Schools 9,353 .. 400,000 
 
 Schools maintained by individuals 322 .. 13,600 
 
 Erasmus Smith’s Schools 125 . 10,990 
 
 Moravians 150 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Schools 20 .. 5,000 
 
 Baptist Irish Evangelical Society Schools 160 .. 10,000 
 
 Irish Society Schools 370 .. 11,000 
 
 Sunday School Society for Ireland 1,221 .. 100,000 
 
 London Hibernian Society Schools 1,569 .. 50,000 
 
 Board of Education Schools 700 .. 100,000 
 
 Kildare Place Society Schools 1,621 .. 90,000 
 
 Schools of the Association for discountenancing Vice . . 249 . . 15,922 
 
 Charter Schools 32 .. 2,210 
 
 Diocesan Schools 12 .. 480 
 
 Foundling Hospital 600 
 
 Female Orphan House 200 
 
 Hibernian Society for Soldiers’ Children 400 
 
 Hibernian Marine Society for Sailors’ ditto 140 
 
 Total 857,692 
 
 In round numbers, we are here presented with the scholars in 
 Ireland, as 800,000. 
 
 These calculations may appear incredible ; yet the more im- 
 portant items are taken from accredited reports, with numerous 
 deductions, and the final surrender of 50,000, to make the sum 
 come into round numbers. This statement gives us one scholar 
 for every ten of the people in Ireland ; they ought surely to be a 
 well-conducted nation ; and did the Establishment accomplish the 
 work it is so well paid for, this should still be a nation of saints. I 
 had thought of condensing all the items of educational expenditure 
 and ecclesiastical emolument ; but instead of this, I shall borrow 
 a few general, summary, and concluding observations from the 
 writings of a friend, in whose sentiments I cordially concur. “ It 
 is not to be forgotten that Protestants have employed most unhal- 
 lowed and most unscriptural means to detach Roman Catholics 
 
134 
 
 from their church. Instead of being instructed in the doctrines of 
 the Reformation, they were commanded to adopt the reformed 
 religion on penalty of being driven from their places of worship. 
 Then came a protracted warfare in defence of their church, thus 
 assailed not by Christian weapons but by legislative enactments, 
 and by force. This ended in the treaty of Limerick, in which all 
 that they stipulated for was toleration. No sooner were Protest- 
 ants firmly seated in power than they refused toleration. The 
 infamous penal code was enacted, and put into rigorous operation; 
 their clergy were proscribed, their children put into the hands of 
 Protestants to be educated, their property confiscated, and every 
 injury and insult heaped on them that a vindictive policy could 
 invent. And not only were they assailed with violence, but with 
 every species of allurement. The children of wealthy Roman Ca- 
 tholics were tempted to become Protestants, by the promise of 
 being put in possession of the property of their own parents. 
 Attempts were made to bribe the poorer class to give up their 
 children, by offering to provide for them, and educate them in 
 charter schools ; and to all classes of them, an open way to all 
 places of emolument and power was held out as the reward of 
 apostacy. 
 
 “ Roman Catholics have never for an hour been permitted to 
 forget the penal code. It has never been publicly disavowed and 
 repented of by the Protestant churches ; it has been but gradually 
 removed ; and every new encroachment upon it obtained in the face 
 of violent opposition from a party always representing themselves 
 as the only Protestant party. The last important blow was given 
 to it in the passing of the emancipation bill ; but a large proportion 
 of the Protestants of Ireland manifested a spirit which, whether 
 justly or not, convinced the Roman Catholics that want of power 
 alone, and not change of principle, or want of inclination, pre- 
 vented them from reviving the whole provisions of the penal code. 
 Protestants have complained that the emancipation bill has not 
 tranquillized the country, nor reconciled contending parties. How 
 could it, when Protestants received that measure so ungraciously, 
 when they refuse to be reconciled, and when they have never for a 
 moment ceased to display their ensigns of defiance and hostility.” 
 
INVOCATION. 
 
 “ O Thou, the ever-begotten Light and perfect image of the 
 Father, Thou canst discover the plots and frustrate the hopes of 
 all the wicked in the land, and put to shame the persecutors of 
 thy church ; as of old thou didst make the false prophets to be 
 found a lie in the sight of all the people, and chase them with 
 confusion and amazement before the redoubled brightness of thy 
 descending cloud that now covers thy tabernacle. Who is there 
 that cannot trace thee now in thy beamy walks through the midst 
 of thy sanctuary, amidst those golden candlesticks which have 
 long suffered a dimness amongst us through the violence of those 
 that had seized them, and were more taken with the mention of 
 their gold than of their starry light; teaching the doctrine of 
 Balaam, to cast a stumbling-block before thy servants, command- 
 ing them to eat things sacrificed to idols, and forcing them to for- 
 nication. Come, therefore, O Thou that hast the seven stars in 
 thy right hand ; appoint thy chosen priests, according to their 
 orders and courses of old, to minister before thee, and duly to 
 dress and pour out the consecrated oil into thy holy and ever- 
 burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon thy 
 servants over all the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows 
 as the sound of many waters about thy throne. Every one can 
 say, that now certainly thou hast visited this land, and hast not 
 forgotten the utmost corners of the earth, in a time when men 
 had thought thou wast gone up from us to the farthest end of the 
 heavens, and hadst left to do marvellously among the sons of 
 these last ages. O perfect and accomplish thy glorious acts ; for 
 men may leave their glorious acts unfinished ; but thou art a God, 
 thy nature is perfection : shouldst thou bring us thus far onward 
 from Egypt to destroy us in this wilderness, though we deserve, 
 yet thy great name would suffer in the rejoicing of thine enemies, 
 and the deluded hope of all thy servants. When thou hast settled 
 peace in the church, and righteous judgment in the kingdom, 
 then shall all thy saints address their voices of joy and triumph 
 
136 
 
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 112 061888423 
 
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 to thee, standing on the shore of that red sea into which our 
 enemies had almost driven us. And he that now for haste 
 snatches up a plain, ungarnished present as a thank-offering to 
 thee, which could not be deferred in regard of thy so many great 
 deliverances wrought for us one upon another, may then perhaps 
 take up a harp and sing thee an elaborate song to generations. 
 In that day it shall no more be said, as in scorn, this or that was 
 never held so, till the present age ; when men have better learned 
 that the times and seasons pass along under thy feet, to go and 
 come at thy bidding : and as thou didst dignify our fathers’ 
 days with many revelations above all the foregoing ages, since 
 thou tookest the flesh, so thou canst vouchsafe to us (though 
 unworthy) as large a portion of thy spirit as thou pleasest; for 
 who shall prejudice thy all-governing will? Seeing the power of 
 thy grace is not passed away with the primitive times, as fond 
 and faithless men imagine, but thy kingdom is now at hand, and 
 thou [art] standing at the door, come forth out of thy royal 
 chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth ! put on the 
 visible robes of thy imperial majesty, take up that unlimited 
 sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; for 
 now the voice of thy bride calls, and all creatures sigh to be 
 renewed !” 
 
 D. MARFLES AND CO., PRINTERS, LIVERPOOL.