.4%, sort of wailing over the extent of conversion from
the Romish to the Protestant Church, is a noticeable feature in the recent writ- inga' of Irish Roman Catholic journalists and speeches of Irish Roman Catholic orators. The proverb, that where there is much smoke there must be some fire, predisposes to a belief that these complaints are not made without cause. Thus much is cer- tain, that the language held by the intelligent but luke- warm religionists who are to be found in the Romish as in« all;. churches, and particularly among the educated classes,
amounts to an admission that considerable numbers of the peasantry and, small farmers, especially in the West of Ireland, are swading from their communions. Persons of this class are in the habit of complaining that the.activity of Protestant mission- aries, by accustoming " people to discuss religioustopics who can- not comprehend them," is, along with .other-causes, contributing to awaken the fears and jealousies of the priests, and reviving polemi- cal strife and uncharitableness. This has in all ages been the com- plaint of rather sceptical persons in comfortable circumstances : they shrink from the seat& after truth as soon as the con- troversies it awakens disturbs their own tranquillity. The labours of Protestant missionaries in Ireland, and their results, are not to be judged by this Epicurean test. Neither does there appear to be just ground of suspicion that undue influence of any kind is used to obtain converts. It would appear, then, that Romanism in Ire- land is on the decline; and that Cardinal Wiseman and Archbishop Cullen have been singularly injudicious in their choice of a time for asserting more uncompromisingly the authority of their Church. The fact also illustrates the lack of wisdom in Lord John Rus- sell and his abettors, who by opposing new legislation to this out- burst of priestly arrogance, enlisted in their favour the esprit de corps of Roman Catholics, when the tendency of their feelings would have been to the opposite direction.
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