THE IJIISH CHURCH. 239 



Tories, we can get a Whig " Irish Church Bill" passed ; for the ge- 

 nerous and long-enduring Irish will be satisfied for the present with 

 the establishment of this grand principle. But the principle fairly 

 carried out would effect a much larger reduction of Protestant tem- 

 poralities than the Whig ministry contemplated, nor would this 

 larger reduction in the least invalidate the political ascendency of 

 the Protestant church. It is important to insist upon this fact, not 

 with a view to disparage the improvement contemplated by the 

 Whigs ; but in order to thrust forward into striking prominency the 

 gross folly and unconstitutional spirit of the present system of Irish 

 Protestantism. 



The Irish Catholics, generous and disposed to conciliation as they 

 are, can, and do, make allowances for Protestant fears and fantasies, 

 however idle now, which have been derived through history. There 

 can be no doubt but that they would cheerfully assent to some such 

 final provisions against them as the following ; which, while they 

 would not tend to repress the vitality and energies of the Catholic re- 

 ligion, as a system of faith and observance, nor amount to an insult, 

 intolerable to freemen and equal fellow-subjects, would still suffice to 

 humour the fastidiousness of Protestant scruples, and satisfy the nation 

 at large, that the Protestant spirit of the constitution still maintained 

 the ascendant. 



1st. Let the Catholic clergy be prohibited from expressing publicly 

 the least degree of political subservience to the Pope. 



2d. Let them be barred from occupation of cathedrals, lest, growing 

 inflated with personal importance, they should assume worldly airs 

 and vanities, which are graceful and edifying, and above all, " con- 

 stitutional" in our own Protestant clergy alone. 

 3d. Let not Catholic bishops be recognized by their titles. 

 4th. Let no existing parochial churches be appropriated to Catholic 

 uses. 



5th. Let not concessions of church revenues, in support of Catholic 

 priests be construed into a " cession of rights ;" but, on the contrary, 

 let it be understood, that the stipends paid the Irish Catholic clergy, 

 by the government, proceeds from Protestant liberality. 



Such provisions as these would quiet the national Protestant mind ; 

 and to such restrictions would the Irish Catholics, for the common 

 good of the empire, cheerfully submit ; for they know well enough, 

 that were they, in the present age, to be treated with all the liberality 

 they deserve by a Protestant government, the fanaticism of the various 

 Protestant sects would be excited to a high degree of holy exaltation ; 

 a " No Popery" cry would be raised, and the hope of a final adjustment 

 and sincere fraternization with Ireland thus removed to a most dis- 

 couraging distance. 



But forbearance need not be preached to the Irish : their demands 

 have always been surprisingly moderate, and are so at this present 

 moment : they do make allowance for Protestant jealousy and pre- 

 judices : they are, without solicitation, content to put up with what- 

 ever may be needful to maintain the " political" ascendency of the 

 Protestant principle. 



Now, the provisions above specified are, beyond question, sufficient 



