COLERIDGE ON IRELAND. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] SIR,—The
following extract from " The Table-Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge," which I lately came across, struck me as being curious. It may, perhaps, interest some of your readers.
—I am, Sir, &c.,
"February 5th, 1833.—UNION WITH IRELAND.—If any modifi- cation cf the Union takes place, I trust it will be a total divorce, a vinculo matrimenii. I am sure we have lived a cat-and-dog life of it. Let us have no silly saving of one crown and two legisla- tures; that would be preserving all the mischiefs without any of the goods, if there are any, of the Union. I am deliberately of opinion, that England, in all its institutions, has received injury from its union with Ireland. My only difficulty is as to the Pro- testants to whom we owe protection. But I cannot forget that the Protestants themselves have greatly aided in accelerating the present horrible state of things, by using that as a remedy and a reward which should have been to them an opportunity. If the Protestant Church in Ireland is removed, of course the Romish Church must be established in its place. There can be no re- sisting it in common reason."
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