THE WEALTHY AND PERSECUTING CHURCH OF IRELAND.
Two Missionaries of the Trish H igh Chu rch party have been labour- ing in their vocation at Liverpool and Bristol. Were their aim to in- crease the disgust with which the very mention of that Church is regarded by humone and intelligent Englishmen, the method they are pursuing would be the best. They have abandoned the only rational ground on which any State religion can be defended —namely, that of its toeing agreeable to the majority of the nation. They claim the support of the British Protestants against the Catholics, on the ground of their Church having been originally in possession of the property she now holds, and her Bishops having come down to her in regular descent from the
Apostles: they maintain, in short, that:their Church is the true Church, and that of the Catholics an interloping and here- tical imposture. The faith and feelings of the inhabitants of Ireland are treated as mere secondary considerations. But the truth or falsehood of different systems of faith cannot be determined by act of Parliament or force of arms. Each in- dividual is accountable for his own ; and the question for the British nation to decide is, whether a bloated sinecure establish- ment is to be kept up at the point of the bayonet, in defiance of the wishes of seven millions of Irishmen, for the exclusive benefit of the remaining one million. This is the simple point at issue. Why Ireland should be so differently and so much worse treated than England or Scotland, the bigoted Missionaries have not ex- plained. They protest lustily that theirs is the true Church ; but they have carefully avoided the proof of its being founded in justice or mercy. They would be glad to convince Englishmen, that in voting millions annually for the support of this blood-stained Esta- blishment, they are only defending the Protestant religion. They will not succeed. Yet they may do some good; for their exhor- tations will induce many to examine the subject, and it would be a libel on the sense and right feeling of Englishmen not to ex- pect a precisely contrary effect to that which it is hoped to produce.
Perhaps mortal assurance was never carried to a higher pitch than in the harangues of Mr. BOYTON and Mr. O'SULLIVAN. They asseverate in the most vehement language, that theirs is a persecuted religion ; that the Liberal Ministry, which has just been turned out, was plotting its overthrow ; that the Irish Pro- testants implore sympathy as men who are suffering for righteous- ness' sake ; and other cant of the same kind.
But what is the fact? Why, that thirty thousand British bayonets arc constantly kept ready for their use; that-an army of police is always on the alert to wrest from the wretched cottier the means of luxury for the clerical sinecurist ; that their Church is supported by main force, and that were it not for the strenuous em- ployment of horse, foot, and artillery for his protection, by that Government which is charged with a design to drive hint into exile, scarcely a Protestant parson in the South of Ireland would see to-morrow's sun.
It is as well to remind the British public of the means which are taken to screw out of the Catholic peasant his last farthing, and the very clothes on his bed, for the support of an Establish- ment blasphemously styled the Church of Christ. The Irish papers contain thousands of such recitals as the following-
" James White has seven acres of ground at 1/. 10s. per acre. The children are literally naked; the wife has no shoes, stockings, or cloak. White bought an old waistcoat a few days back, and was obliged to borrow a loose coat to cover his naked limbs while going to a fair. They cannot go to mass for want of clothes. This man's calf was seized for tithes."
Now, observe what Mr. BOYTON said at Bristol respecting the comparative wealth of the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland- " He would show them the quantity of land in the occupation of l'rotestants and Roman Catholics; the Protestants held 323,257 acres; the Roman Catho- lics 71,404. But perhaps the Roman Catholics paid more than the Protestants. Now by the return it appeared that the Protestants paid 81,9!-11/., and the Roman Catholics only paid 21137/. And it u as an extraordinary fact, that nearly all the public Charities of Ireland were sustained by the Protestant popu- lation. In 18•29, a collection had been made for the distressed manufacturers in Dublin, when the Protestants collected 3554., and the Catholics collected only 192/. In the .Mendicity Society the Protestants contributed 4454/., while the Roman Catholics only collected 4001."
These facts were adduced to prove bow much more wealthy the Protestants are than the Catholics. But does not the possession af this wealth magnify the guilt of compelling poverty-stricken Catholics to support a Church which its own disciples are so well able to provide for? The Protestants, we are told, possess nearly all the land, and property of all kinds in the country : they are not a third of the population in number, and yet they screw out of the peasantry hundreds of thousands of pounds annually, for the support of sinecure clergymen -whose faith is execrated by their paymasters.
How long shall this iniquity endure on the face of the earth ? When shall a Bi itish King be exempted from believing it a part of his sworn duty to uphold such a nuisance even at the risk of involving his dominions in confusion ?
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