11 APRIL 1868, Page 2

Professor Brewer of King's College sends to the Times of

Fri- day a letter in favour of the Irish Church which strikes us as ex- ceedingly fallacious and unworthy of his high reputation. The real gist of the letter is that a State Church ought to be kept up in Ireland, if only as a sort of living symbol of the doctrine that the Monarch is Head of the Church,—as a vigorous, practical " protest against errors far more subtle and far more dangerous than image worship and transubstantiation." In other words, Professor Brewer, apparently giving up the theory that the Pro- testant Establishment should be kept up to witness to true theological doctrines, asserts that it ought to be kept up to witness to true poli- tical and ecclesiastical doctrines instead. Why, as it has, in fact, totally failed in bearing effectual witness to both classes of truth alike, it ought to be kept up at the cost of a Catholic nation to bear its useless witness in the future to this rather than the other sort of truth which Catholics deem to be error, Professor Brewer does not, because he cannot, say. But the Irish Church, liberated from State fetters, will become as defiant and intolerant as it pleases, says Professor Brewer. Doubtless ;—it may become as de- fiant and intolerant as the Scotch Free Church, or English Non- conformists. But why is that a reason for taking national pro- perty and applying it to uses which offend the majority of the nation ?