Ireland and her .Churches. By James Godkin. (Chapman and Hall.)
—It is a pity that Mr. Godkin has not better digested his materials, and put them forth more forcibly and in a shorter compass. His book as it stands will be serviceable to future writers and speakers on the Irish Church, but we cannot expect it to influence the public. And in our opinion, the time has come for the question to be brought before the public in a simple and straightforward manner. A few facts and a few figures would suffice to show what is the real point at issue. Instead of this, Mr. Godkin gives us a mass of detail about all the Irish dioceses; tells us how often there is service in one parish, and what is the residence of the minister of another, and while incidentally exposing a great many jobs, allows the general reader to skip over much that is more truly material. A writer on the Irish Church ought to be temperate without being dull, and accurate without being minutely exhaustive. We have nothing to say against Mr. Godkin on the score of temperance, indeed, for an Irishman he is moderation itself. But his work resembles an argumentative Blue-Book, or a Clergy List with a running commentary. It needs a Royal Commission to form a digest of it, or rather a reviewer with a theory, a clear head, and the space allotted to a quarterly article. Taken in such a compressed form, Mr. Godkin's book would hardly fail to produce its effect.
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