S. S.v-/.m

VWnSS 164^6

A FRAGMENT

IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH.
BY THE I, ATE
EEV. SYD]^EY SMITH.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR.
LONGMAN, BEOWN, GEEEN, AND LONGMANS,
PATEENOSTER-HOW. 1845.

XiONllON :
Printed by A. Spottiswoode,
New- Street- Square .

PREEACE.

The foUowing unreyised fragment, found among
the papers of the late Rey. Sydney Smith, if it
serye no other purpose, wiU at least proye that
his last, as well as his earliest efforts, were exerted
for the promotion of rehgious freedom, and may
satisfy those who haye objected to his later
writings, because his own interest appeared to
be bound up with his opinions, that he did not
hesitate to the last moment of his Hfe, boldly to
adyocate what he considered to be justice to
others. April, 1845.

.\ 2

Pi'ivate Memoranda of Subjects intended to have been
introduced in the Pamphlet, ^c.
Debates in the House of Commons in 1825, on the motion
of Lord F. Egerton, for the support of the Roman Ca
tholic clergy. Printed separately, I believe, in Ireland.
Evidence before the House of Commons in 1824 and 1825,
including Doyle's.
A Speech of Charles Grant's in 1819, on a motion of James
Daly to enforce the Insurrection Act.
Debates on Maynooth, in February last (1844).
Hard case of the priest's first year.
Provision offered by Pitt and Castlereagh, and accepted by
the hierarchy.
*Send ambassadors to Constantinople, and refuse to send
them to Rome.
England should cast off its connexion with the Irish Church.
Lord F. Egerton's plan for paying the Roman Catholic
clergy in 1825. The prelates agreed to take the money.
*01d mode of governing by Protestants at an end.
*Vast improvements since the Union, and fully specified in
Martin, page 35.
*Priests dare not thwart the people for fear of losing money.
*Dreadful oppression of the people.
*Bishops dare not enforce their rules. They must have
money. * These subjects are treated of in the Fragment.

A 3

A FRAGMENT on
THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH.

The reyenue of the Irish Roman Catholic
Church is made up of half-pence, potatoes, rags,
bones, and fragments of old clothes, and those
Irish old clothes. They worship often in hoy els,
or in the open air, from the want of any place of
worship. Their religion is the rehgion of three-
fourths of the population ! Not far off, in a well-
windowed and weU-roofed house, is a well-paid
Protestant clergyman, preaching to stools and
hassocks, and crying in the wilderness ; near
him the clerk, near him the sexton, near him the
sexton's wife — furious against the errors of
Popery, and wilUng to lay down their liyes for
the great truths estabhshed at the Diet of Augs
burg. There is a story in the Leinster family which
passes under the name of
" She is not well."
A Protestant clergyman, whose church was in
the neighbourhood, was a guest at the house of
A 4

8
that upright and excellent man the Duke of
Leinster. He had been staying there three or
four days ; and on Saturday night, as they were
all retiring to their rooms, the Duke said, " "We
shall meet to-morrow at breakfast." — " Not so
(said our Milesian Protestant) ; your hour, my
lord, is a little too late for me ; I am yery par
ticular in the discharge of my duty, and your
breakfast will interfere with my church." The
Duke was pleased with the yery proper excuses
of his guest, and they separated for the night ; —
his Grace perhaps deeming his palace more safe
from all the eyils of life for containing in its
bosom such an exemplary son of the Church.
The first person, howeyer, whom the Duke saw
in the morning upon entering the breakfast-room
was our punctual Protestant, deep in rolls and
butter, his finger in an egg, and a large slice of
the best Tipperary ham secured on his plate.
" Dehghted to see you, my dear yicar," said the
Duke ; " but I must say as much surprised as
delighted." — " Oh, don't you know what has
happened?" said the sacred breakfaster, — " she is
not loell." — " Who is not well? " said the Duke :
" you are not married — you haye no sister liying
— I 'm quite uneasy ; tell me who is not well."
" Why the fact is, my lord Duke, that my con
gregation consists of the clerk, the sexton, and
the sexton's wife. Now the sexton's wife is in
yery delicate health: when she cannot attend.

9
we cannot muster the number mentioned in the
rubric ; and we haye, therefore, no seryice on
that day. The good woman had a cold and sore
throat this morning, and, as I had breakfasted
but slightly, I thought I might as well hurry
back to the regular family dejeuner." I don't
know that the clergyman behayed improperly;
but such a church is hardly worth an insurrec
tion and ciyil war eyery ten years.
Sir Robert did well in fighting it out with
O'ConneU. He was too late ; but when he began
he did it boldly and sensibly, and I, for one, am
heartily glad O'ConneU has been found guilty
and imprisoned. He was either in earnest about
Repeal or he was not. If he was in earnest, I
entirely agree with Lord Grey and Lord Spencer,
that ciyil war is preferable to Repeal. Much as
I hate wounds, dangers, privations, and explosions
— much as I loye regular hours of dinner —
foolish as I think men coyered with the feathers
of the male Pullus domesticus, and coyered with
lace in the course of the ischiatic nerye — much
as I detest all these follies and ferocities, I would
rather turn soldier myself than acquiesce quietly
in such a separation of the Empire.
It is such a piece of nonsense, that no man can
haye any reyerence for himself who would stop
to discuss such a question. It is such a piece of
anti-British yiUany, that none but the bitterest
enemy of our blood and people could entertain

10
such a project ! It is to be met only with round
and grape — to be answered by Shrapnel and
Congreye ; to be discussed in hollow squares,
and refuted by battalions four deep ; to be put
down by the ultima ratio of that armed Aristotle
the Duke of Wellington.
O'ConneU is released ; and released I haye no
doubt by the conscientious decision of the Law
Lords. If he was unjustly (eyen from some tech
nical defect) imprisoned, I rejoice in his liber
ation. England is, I belieye, the only country
in the world, where such an eyent could haye
happened, and a wise Irishman (if there be a
wise Irishman) should be slow in separating
from a country whose spirit can produce, and
whose institutions can admit, of such a result."
Of his guilt no one doubts, but guUty men must
be hung technically and according to established
rules ; upon a statutable gibbet, with parliament
rope, and a legal hangman, sheriff, and chaplain
on the scaffold, and the mob in the foreground.
But, after all, I haye no desire my dear Daniel
should come to any harm, for I belieye there is
a great deal of virtue and excellent meaning in
him, and I must now beg a few minutes con
versation with him. " After all, my dear Daniel,
what is it you want ? — a separation of the two
countries ? — for what purpose ? — for your own
aggrandisement ? — for the gratification of your

11
personal vanity ? You don't know yourself;
you are much too honourable and moral a man,
and too clear-sighted a person for such a busi
ness as this : the empire wUl be twisted out of
your hands by a set of cut-throat villains, and
you wiU die secretly by a poisoned potato, or
be pistoled in the streets. You have too much
sense and taste and openness to endure for a
session the stupid and audacious mckedness and
nonsense of your associates. If you want fame,
you must be insatiable ! Who is so much known
in all Europe, or so much admired by honest
men for the real good you had done to your
country, before this insane cry of Repeal ? And
don't imagine you can intimidate this Govern
ment ; whatever be their faults or merits, you
may take my word for it, you will not intimidate
them. They wiU prosecute you again, and put
down your Clontarf meetings, and they will be
quite right in doing so. They may make conces
sions, and I think they will ; but they would fall
into utter contempt if they allowed themselves
to be terrified into a dissolution of the Union.
They know fuU well that the English nation are
unanimous and resolute upon this point, and that
they would prefer war to a Repeal. And now,
dear Daniel, sit down quietly at Derrynane, and
teU me, when the bodily frame is refreshed with
the wine of Bordeaux, whether all this is worth

12
while. What is the object of all government ?
The object of all government is roast mutton,
potatoes, claret, a stout constable, an honest
justice, a clear highway, a free chapel. What
trash to be bawling in the streets about the
Green Isle, the Isle of the Ocean! the bold
anthem of Erin go bragh ! A far better anthem
would be Erin go bread and cheese, Erin go
cabins that wiU keep out the rain, Erin go panta
loons without holes in them ! What foUy to be
making eternal declamations about governing
yourselves ! If laws are good and well ad
ministered, is it worth whUe to rush into war
and rebelUon in order that no better laws may
be made in another place ? Are you an Eton
boy who has just come out, fuU of Plutarch's
Lives, and considering in every case how Epami-
nondas or PhUopoemen would have acted, or are
you our own dear Daniel, drilled in all the busi
ness and bustle of life ? I am with you heart
and soul in my detestation of all injustice done
to Ireland. Your priests shaU be fed and paid,
the Uberties of your Church be scrupulously
guarded, and in civil affairs the most even justice
be preserved between Catholic and Protestant.
Thus far I am a thorough rebel as well as your
self ; but when you come to the perilous non
sense of Repeal.! ^^ common with every honest
man who has five grains of common sense, I take
my leave."

13
It is entertaining enough, that although the
Irish are beginning to be so clamorous about
making their own laws, the wisest and the best
statutes in the books have been made since
their union with England. AU Catholic dis
abilities have been abolished ; a good police
has been established all oyer the kingdom ; pub
lic courts of petty sessions have been instituted ;
free trade between Great Britain and Ireland has
been completely carried into effect ; lord lieu
tenants are placed in every county ; church rates
are taken off Catholic shoulders ; the County
Grand Jury Rooms are flung open to the public ;
county surveyors are of great seryice ; a noble
provision is made for educating the people.
I never saw a man who had returned to Ire
land after four or five years' absence, who did
not say how much it had improved, and how
fast it was improving : and this is the country
which is to be Erin-go-bragh'd by this shallow,
vain, and irritable people into bloodshed and
rebeUion !
The first thing to be done is to pay the priests,
and after a little time they wiU ta;ke the money.
One man wants to repair his cottage ; another
wants a buggy ; a third cannot shut his eyes to
the dilapidations of a cassock. The draft is pay
able at sight in Dublin, or by agents in the next
market town dependent upon the Commission in
Dublin. The housekeeper of the holy man is
importunate for money, and if it is not procured

14
by drawing for the salary, it must be extorted
by curses and comminations from the ragged
worshippers, slowly, sorrowfully, and sadly.
There Avill be some opposition at first, but the
facihty of getting the salary without the violence
they are now forced to use, and the difficulties
to which they are exposed in procuring the pay
ment of those emoluments to which they are
fairly entitled, will, in the end, overcome all ob
stacles. And if it does not succeed, what harm
is done by the attempt ? It evinces on the part
of this country the strongest disposition to do
what is just, and to apply the best remedy to
the greatest evil ; but the very attempt would do
good, and would be felt in the great Cathohc
insurrection, come when it will. All rebeUions
and disaffections are general and terrible in pro
portion as one party has suffered, and the other
inflicted; — any great measure of concUiation, pro
posed in the spirit of kindness, is remembered,
and renders war less terrible, and opens avenues
to peace.
The Roman Catholic priest could not refuse to
draw his salary from the State without incurring
the indignation of his flock. " Why are you to
come upon us for aU this money, when you can
ride over to SHgo or Belfast, and draw a draft
upon Government for the amount?" It is not
easy to give a satisfactory answer to this, to a
shrewd man who is starving to death.

15
Of course, in talking of a government payment
to the Catholic priest, I mean it should be done
with the utmost fairness and good faith ; no
attempt to gain patronage, or to make use of the
Pope as a stalking-horse for playing tricks.
Leave the patronage exactly as you find it ; and
take the greatest possible care that the Catholic
clergy have no reason to suspect you in this par
ticular ; do it like gentlemen, without shufiling
and prevarication, or leave it alone altogether.
The most important step in improvement which
mankind ever made was the secession from the
see of Rome, and the estabhshment of the Pro
testant religion ; but though I have the sincerest
admiration of the Protestant faith, I have no ad
miration of Protestant hassocks on which there
are no knees, nor of seats on which there is no
superincumbent Protestant pressure, nor of whole
acres of tenantless Protestant pews, in which no
human being of the 500 sects of Christians is
ever seen. I have no passion fbr sacred emp
tiness, or pious vacuity. The emoluments of
those livings in which there are few or no Pro
testants ought, after the death of the present in
cumbents, to be appropriated in part to the uses
of the predominant religion, or some arrangements
made for superseding such utterly useless mi
nisters immediately, securing to them the emolu
ments they possess.
Can any honest man say, that in parishes (as

16
is the case frequently in Ireland) containing 3000
or 4000 Catholics and 40 or 50 Protestants,
there is the smallest chance of the majority being
converted ? Are not the Catholics (except in
the North of Ireland, where the great mass are
Presbyterians) gaining every where on the Pro
testants ? The tithes were originally possessed
by the Catholic Church of Ireland. Not one
shilling of them is now devoted to that purpose.
An immense majority of the common people are
Catholics ; they see a church richly supported by
the spoils of their own church estabhshments, in
whose tenets not one tenth part of the people
belieye. Is it possible to believe this can endure ?
— that a light, irritable, priest-ridden people wfll
not, under such circumstances, always remain at
the very eve of rebelUon, always ready to explode
when the finger of Daniel touches the hair trig
ger ? — for Daniel, be it said, though he hates
shedding blood in smaU quantities, has no ob
jection to provoking kindred nations to war. He
very properly objects to killing or being kUled
by Lord Alvanley ; but would urge on ten thou
sand Pats in ciyil combat against ten thousand
Bulls. His objections are to small homicides ;
and his vow that he has registered in Heaven is
only against retail destruction and murder by
piecemeal. He does not like to teaze Satan by
driblets ; but to earn eternal torments by per
suading eight million Irish and twelve million

17
Britons no longer to buy and sell oats and salt
meat, but to butcher each other in God's name
to extermination. And what if Daniel dies, — of
what use his death ? Does Daniel make the oc
casion, or does the occasion make Daniel ? —
Daniels are made by the bigotry and insolence of
England to Ireland ; and tUl the monstrous abuses
of the Protestant Church in that country are
rectified, there will always he Daniels, and they
wiU always come out of their dens more power
ful and more popular than when you cast them
in. I do not mean by this unjustly and cowardly
to run down O'ConneU. He has been of eminent
service to his country in the question of Catholic
Emancipation, and I am by no means satisfied
that with the gratification of vanity there are not
mingled genuine feelings of patriotism and a deep
sense of the injustice done to his country. His
first success, howeyer, flung him off his guard ;
and perhaps he trusted too much in the timidity
of the present Government, who are by no means
composed of irresolute or weak men.
If I thought Ireland quite safe, I should still
object to injustice. I could never endure in
silence that the Cathohc Church of Ireland should
be left in its present state ; but I am afraid France
and England can now afford to fight : and having
saved a little money, they will, of course, spend
it in fighting. That puppy of the waves, young
B

18
Joinville, will steam over in a high-pressure fleet !
— and then comes an immense twenty per cent.
income-tax war, an universal insurrection in Ire
land, and a crisis of misery and distress, in which
life will hardly be worth having. The struggle
may end in our favour, but it may not; and the
object of political wisdom is to avoid these strug
gles. I want to see joUy Roman Catholic priests
secure of their income without any motive for
sedition or turbulence. I want to see Patricks
at the loom ; cotton and silk factories springing
up in the bogs ; Ireland a rich, happy, quiet coun
try ! — scribbling, carding, cleaning, and making
calico, as if mankind had only a few days more
allotted to them for making clothes, and were
ever after to remain stark naked.
Remember that between your impending and
your past wars with Ireland, there is this re
markable difference. You have given up your
Protestant auxiliaries ; the Protestants enjoyed
in former disputes all the patronage of Ireland ;
they fought not only from religious hatred, but to
preserve their monopoly; — that monopoly is gone ;
you have been candid and just for thirty years,
and have lost those friends whose swords were
always ready to defend the partiality of the
Government and to stifle the cry of justice. The
next war will not be between Cathohc and Pro
testant, but between Ireland and England.
I have some belief in Sir Robert. He is a man

19
of great understanding, and must see that this
eternal O'Connelling Avill never do, that it is im
possible it can last. We are in a transition state,
and the Tories may be assured that the Baronet
wiU not go too fast. If Peel teUs them that the
thing must be done, they may be sure it is high
time to do it ; — they may retreat mournfuUy
and suUenly before common justice and common
sense, but retreat they toms^ when Tamworth gives
the word, — and in quick-step too, and without
loss of time.
And let me beg of my dear Ultras not to imagine
that they survive for a single instant without Sir
Robert — that they could form an Ultra-tory Ad
ministration. Is there a Chartist in Great Britain
who would not, upon the first intimation of such
a,n attempt, order a new suit of clothes, and call
upon the baker and milkman for an extended
credit ? Is there a pohtical reason er who would
not come out of his hole with a new constitution ?
Is there one ravenous rogue who would not be
looking for his prey ? Is there one honest man
of common sense who does not see that universal
disaffection and civU war would foUow from the
blind fury, the childish prejudices and the deep
ignorance of such a sect ? I have a high opinion
of Sir Robert Peel, but he must summon up all his
political courage, and do something next session
for the payment of the Roman Cathohc priests.
He must run some risk of shocking public opinion ;
B 2

20
no greater risk, however, than he did in Catholic
Emancipation. I am sure the Whigs would be
true to him, and I think I observe that very
many obtuse country gentlemen are alarmed by
the state of Ireland and the hostUity of France
and America.
Give what you please to the Catholic priests,
habits are not broken in a day. There must be
time as well as justice, but in the end these things
have their effect. A buggy, a house, some fields
near it, a decent income paid quarterly ; in the
long run these are the cures of sedition and dis
affection ; men don't quit the commoji business of
Hfe and join bitter pohtical parties unless they
have something justly to complain of.
But where is the money — about 400,000/. per
annum — to come from ? Out of the pockets of
that best of men Mr. Thomas GrenviUe, out of
the pockets of the Bishops, of Sir Robert Inghs,
and aU other men who pay aU other taxes ; and
never wiU public money be so weU and wisely
employed !
It turns out that there is no law to prevent
entering into diplomatic engagements with the
Pope. The sooner we become acquainted with
a gentleman who has so much to say to eight
millions of our subjects the better ! Can anything
be so childish and absurd as a horror of com
municating with the Pope, and all the hobgoblins
we haye imagined of premunires and outlawries
for this contraband trade in piety ? Our an-

21
cestors (strange to say wiser than ourselves) have
left us to do as we please, and the sooner Govern
ment do, what they can do legally, the better.
A thousand opportunities of doing good in Irish
affairs have been lost, from our having no avowed
and dignified agent at the Court of Rome. If it
depended upon me, I would send the Duke of
Devonshire there to-morrow, with nine chaplains
and several tons of Protestant theology. I have
no loye of popery, but the Pope is at all events
better than the idol of Juggernaut, whose chap
lains I beheve we pay, and whose chariot I dare
say is made in Long Acre. We pay 10,000Z. a
year to our ambassador at Constantinople, and
are startled with the idea of communicating di
plomatically with Rome, deeming the Sultan a
better Christian than the Pope !
The mode of exacting clerical dues in Ireland
is quite arbitrary and capricious. Uniformity is
out of the question ; every thing depends on the
disposition and temper of the clergyman. There
are salutary regulations put forth in each dio
cese respecting church dues and church dis-
ciphne, and put forth by episcopal and syno-
dical authority. Specific sums are laid down
for mass, marriage, and the administration of
the Eucharist. These authorised payments are
moderate enough, but every priest, in spite of
these rules, makes the most he can of his ministry,
and the strangest discrepancy prevails, even in
B 3

22
the same diocese, in the demands made upon the
people. The priest and his flock are continuaUy
coming into colUsion on pecuniary matters.
Twice a year the holy man coUects confession
money under the denomination of Christmas and
Easter offerings. He selects in every neighbour
hood one or two houses in which he holds stations
of confession. Yery disagreeable scenes take
place when additional money is demanded, or
when additional time for payment is craved.
The first thing done when there is a question of
marrying a couple is, to make a bargain about the
marriage money. The wary minister watches
the palpitations, puts on a shiUing for every sigh,
and two-pence on every tear, and maddens the
impetuosity of the young lovers up to a pound
sterling. The remuneration prescribed by the
diocesan statutes, is never thought of for a mo
ment ; the priest makes as hard a bargain as he
can, and the bed the poor peasants are to lie
upon is sold, to make their concubinage lawful ; —
but every one present at the marriage is to con
tribute; — the minister, after begging and in-
treating some time to httle purpose, gets into a
violent rage, abuses and is abused ; — and in this
way is celebrated one of the sacraments of the
Catholic Church ! — The same scenes of alterca
tion and abuse take place when gossip money is
refused at baptisms ; but the most painful scenes
take place at extreme unction, a ceremony to

23
which the common people in Ireland attach the
utmost importance. "Pay me beforehand —
this is not enough — I insist upon more, I know
you can afford it, I insist upon a larger fee ! "
— and aU this before the dying man, who feels
he has not an hour to hve ! and believes that
salvation depends upon the timely application of
this sacred grease.
Other bad consequences arise out of the pre
sent system of Irish Church support. Many of
the clergy are constantly endeavouring to over
reach and undermine one another. Every man
looks to his own private emolument, regardless
of aU covenants, expressed or implied. The
curate does not make a fair return to the parish
priest, nor the parish priest to the curate. There
is an universal scramble! — every one gets what
he can, and seems to think he would be almost
justified in appropriating the whole to himself.
And how can all this be otherwise ? How are
the poor wretched clergy to hve but by setting
a high price on their theological labours, and
using every incentive of fear and superstition to
extort from six miUions of beggars the httle pay
ments wanted for the bodies of the poor, and the
support of life ! I maintain that it is shocking
and wicked to leave the rehgious guides of six
millions of people in such a state of destitution !
— to bestow no more thought upon them than
upon the clergy of the Sandwich Islands ! If I
B 4

24
were a member of the Cabinet, and met my col
leagues once a week, to eat birds and beasts, and
to talk over the state of the world, I should be
gin upon Ireland before the soup was finished,
go on through fish, turkey, and saddle of mutton,
and never end tUl the last thimbleful of claret
had passed down the throat of the incredulous
Haddington : but there they sit, week after week ;
there they come, week after week ; the PiccadiUy
Mars, the Scotch Neptune, Themis Lyndhurst,
the Tamworth Baronet, dear Goody, and dearer
Gladdy, and think no more of paying the Ca
thohc clergy, than a man of real fashion does of
paying his tailor ! And there is no excuse for this
in fanaticism. There is only one man in the
Cabinet who objects from reasons purely fana
tical, because the Pope is the Scarlet Lady, or
the Sevtoth Vial, or the Little Horn. AU the
rest are entirely of opinion that it ought to be
done — that it is the one thing needful ; but they
are afraid of bishops, and county meetings, news
papers, and pamphlets, and reviews ; aU fair
enough objects of apprehension, but they must be
met, and encountered, and put down. It is im
possible that the subject can bC: much longer
avoided, and that every year is to produce a
deadly struggle with the people, and a long trial
in time of peace with 0' somebody, the patriot for
the time being, or the general, perhaps, in time
of a foreign war.

25
If I were a Bishop, living beautifuUy in a state
of serene plenitude, I don't think I could endure
the thought of so many honest, pious, and labo
rious clergymen of another faith, placed in such
disgraceful circumstances ! I could not get into
my carriage with jeUy-springs, or see my two
courses every day, without remembering the
buggy and the bacon of some poor old Catholic
Bishop, ten times as laborious, and with much
more, perhaps, of theological learning than my
self, often distressed for a few pounds ! and bur-
thened with duties utterly disproportioned to
his age and strength. I think, if the extreme
comfort of my own condition did not extinguish
aU feeling for others, I should sharply commi
serate such a Church, and attempt with ardour and
perseverance to apply the proper remedy. Now
let us bring names and weU-known scenes before
the English reader, to give him a clearer notion
of what passes in Catholic Ireland. The living
of St. George's, Hanover Square, is a benefice of
about 16001. per annum, and a good house. It
is in the possession of Dr. Hodgson, who is also
Dean of Carhsle, worth, I beheve, about 1500/.
more. A more comfortable existence can hardly
be conceived. Dr. Hodgson is a very worthy,
amiable man, and I am very glad he is as rich
as he is : but suppose he had no revenues but
what he got off his own bat, — suppose that in
stead of tumbling through the skylight, as his

26
income now does, it was procured by Catholic
methods. The Doctor tells Mr. Thompson he
will not marry him to Miss Simpson under 30/. ;
Thompson demurs, and endeavours to beat him
down. The Doctor sees Miss Simpson ; finds
her very pretty; thinks Thompson hasty, and
after a long and undignified negotiation, the
Doctor gets his fee. Soon after this he receives
a message from Place, the tailor, to come and
anoint him "with extreme unction. He repairs
to the bed-side, and teUs Mr. Place that he will
not touch him under a suit of clothes, equal to
10/. : the family resist, the altercation goes on
before the perishing artizan, the price is reduced
to 8/., and Mr. Place is oiled. On the ensuing
Sunday the child of Lord B. is to be christened:
the godfathers and godmothers will only give a
sovereign each ; the Doctor refuses to do it for
the money, and the church is a scene of clamour
and confusion. These are the scenes which, un
der similar circumstances, would take place here,
for the congregation want the comforts of reh
gion without fees, and wUl cheat the clergyman
if they can ; and the clergyman who means to
hve, must meet all these artifices with stern re
sistance. And this is the wretched state of the
Irish Roman Catholic clergy! — a miserable blot
and stain on the Enghsh nation ! What a bless
ing to this country would a real Bishop be ! A
man who thought it the first duty of Christianity

27
to allay the bad passions of mankind, and to re-
concUe contending sects with each other. What
peace and happiness such a man as the Bishop of
London might have conferred on the Empire, if,
instead of changing black dresses for white dresses,
and administering to the frivolous disputes
of foolish zealots, he had laboured to abate the
hatred of Protestants for the Roman Catholics,
and had dedicated his powerful understanding to
promote religious peace in the two countries.
Scarcely any bishop is sufficiently a man of the
world to deal with fanatics. The way is not to
reason with them, but to ask them to dinner.
They are armed against logic and remonstrance,
but they are puzzled in a labyrinth of wines, dis
armed by faculties and concessions, introduced
to a new world, come away thinking more of hot
and cold, and dry and sweet, than of Newman,
Keble, and Pusey. So mouldered away Hanni
bal's army at Capua! So the primitive and
perpendicular prig of Puseyism is softened
into practical -wisdom, and coaxed into com
mon sense! Providence gives us Generals, and
Admirals, and ChanceUors of the Exchequer ;
but I never remember in my time a real Bishop,
— a grave elderly man, full of Greek, with sound
views of the middle voice and preterperfect tense,
gentle and kind to his poor clergy, of powerful
and commanding eloquence ; in Parliament never
to be put down when the great interests of man-

28
kind were concerned ; leaning to the Government
when it was right, leaning to the People when
they were right ; feeling that if the Spirit of God
had caUed him to that high ofiice, he was called
for no mean purpose, but rather that, see
ing clearly, and acting boldly, and intending
purely, he might confer lasting benefits upon
mankind. We consider the Irish clergy as factious, and
as encouraging the bad anti-British spirit of the
people. How can it be otherwise ? They live
by the people ; they have nothing to live upon
but the voluntary oblations of the people ; and
they must fall into the same spirit as the people,
or they would be starved to death. No mar
riage ; no mortuary masses ; no unctions to the
priest who preached against O'ConneU !
Give the clergy a maintenance separate from
the wiU of the people, and you will then enable
them to oppose the folly and madness of the
people. The objection to the State provision
does not really come from the clergy, but from
the agitators and repealers : these men see the
immense advantage of carrying the clergy with
them in their agitation, and of giving the sanc
tion of religion to pohtical hatred ; they know
that the clergy, moving in the same direction
with the people, have an immense influence over
them ; and they are very wisely afraid, not only
of losing this co-operating power, but of seeing

29
it, by a state provision, arrayed against them. I
am fuUy convinced that a state payment to the
Catholic clergy, by leaving to that laborious and
useful body of men the exercise of their free
judgment, would be the severest blow that Irish
agitation could receive.
For advancing these opinions, I haye no doubt
I shall be assailed by Sacerdos, Vindex, Latimer,
Yates, Clericus, Aruspex, and be called atheist,
deist, democrat, smuggler, poacher, highwayman
Unitarian, and Edinburgh reviewer! Still, I
am in the right., — and what I say, requires excuse
for being trite and obvious, not for being mis
chievous and paradoxical. I write for three rea
sons ; first, because I really wish to do good;
secondly, because if I don't write, I know no
body else wiU ; and thirdly, because it is the
nature of the animal to write, and I cannot help
it. StiU, in looking back I see no reason to re
pent. What I have said ought to be done, gene-
raUy has been done, but always twenty or thirty
years too late ; done, not of course because I
have said it, but because it was no longer possible
to avoid doing it. Human beings chng to their
delicious tyrannies, and to their exquisite non
sense, like a drunkard to his bottle, and go on
tiU death stares them in the face. The mon
strous state of the Catholic church in Ireland
will probably remain till some monstrous ruin

30
threatens the very existence of the Empire, and
Lambeth and Fulham are cursed by the affrighted
people. I have always compared the Protestant church
in Ireland (and I believe my friend Thomas
Moore stole the simile from me) to the institu
tion of butchers' shops in all the villages of our
Indian empire. " We will have a butcher's shop
in every village, and you, Hindoos, shaU pay
for it. We know that many of you do not eat
meat at all, and that the sight of beef steaks is
particularly offensive to you ; but stUl, a stray
European may pass through your viUage, and
want a steak or a chop : the shop shall be es
tablished; and you shaU pay for it." This is
English legislation for Ireland ! ! There is no
abuse like it in aU Europe, in aU Asia, in all
the discovered parts of Africa, and in aU we
have heard of Timbuctoo ! It is an error that
requires 20,000 armed men for its protection in
time of peace ; which costs more than a million
a year ; and which, in the first French war, in
spite of the puffing and panting of fighting
steamers, wiU and must break out into desperate
rebellion. It is commonly said, if the Roman Cathohc
priests are paid by the State, they will lose their
influence over their flocks ; — not their fair in
fluence — not that influence which any wise and

31
good man would wish to see in all religions —
not the dependence of humble ignorance upon
prudence and piety — only feUowship in faction,
and fraternity in rebellion ; — all that will be
lost. A peep-of-day clergyman will no longer
preach to a peep-of-day congregation — a White-
boy vicar wiU no longer lead the psalm to White-
boy vocahsts ; but every thing that is good and
wholesome wUl remain. This, however, is not
what the anti- British faction want ; they want
aU the animation which piety can breathe into
sedition, and aU the fury which the priesthood
can preach to diversity of faith : and this is what
they mean by a clergy losing their influence over
the people ! The less a clergyman exacts of his
people, the more his payments are kept out of
sight, the less wiU be the friction with which he
exercises the functions of his office. A poor
Cathohc may respect a priest the more who mar
ries, baptizes, and anoints ; but he respects him
because he associates with his name and character
the performance of sacred duties, not because he
exacts heavy fees for doing so. Double fees
would be a very doubtful cure for scepticism ;
and though we have often seen the tenth of the
earth's produce carted away for the benefit of
the clergyman, we do not remember any very
lively marks of satisfaction and delight which it
produced in the countenance of the decimated

• 32
person. I am thoroughly convinced that State
payments to the Catholic clergy would remove a
thousand causes of hatred between the priest
and his flock, and would be as favourable to the
increase of his useful authority, as it would be
fatal to his factious influence oyer the people.

*i^.*

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