242 Irish Polemics. [MARCH, 



insulated groups instead of framing one homogeneous whole to the utter 

 destruction of order, industry, and internal quiet. Thus it has happened 

 in Ireland, that the dispute between Catholic and Protestant (which, 

 in fact, is a mere matter of pounds, shillings, and pence a contest 

 between monopoly and justice, for power, as the instrument for distributing 

 wealth) has gradually exalted the religious sensibilities of both parties ; 

 which have acted and re-acted upon each other, till both have been lashed 

 to an highly-excited pitch of fanaticism. The consequence is, that an 

 Irish Catholic is more a Catholic than his co-religionists in the rest of Eu- 

 rope, Spain excepted ; and an Irish Protestant is more a Protestant than 

 an English one. Unfortunately, this excess of religious feeling turns much 

 less to the account of morality, than to punctuality of ceremonial, and to 

 jealousy of dogma. An Irish Catholic is shockod at the laxity of the con- 

 tinentalists in discipline, in fastings, and confessions ; while the general 

 tendency of the whole Protestant church in Ireland is towards what is 

 called high church methodism. There is, on both sides, a greater zeal and 

 earnestness in religious matters but a zeal unaccompanied by charity, and 

 ungoverned by discretion. In this state of rivalry, it will not seem strange 

 that proselytism should become a favourite engine for gratifying the angry 

 passions ; and that occasional conversions from among the ranks of the 

 hostile creed should be a matter of ambition and of noisy boasting. This 

 condition of things has, perhaps, more or less, prevailed since the com- 

 mencement of the unhappy schism ; but. within a very recent period, it has 

 been materially aggravated by an importation of foreign venom, and by the 

 interference of the English missionary societies with the national quarrel. 

 To those who are determined in their opposition to all concession, there are 

 but two ways of dealing with the Catholics, so as to heal the religious 

 heart-burnings of the Irish : they must be exterminated, or they must be 

 converted. The former alternative is impossible; and though fanaticism 

 in its madness would fain provoke the attempt, the humanity of the times 

 will not allow it the opportunity. On this account, a leading individual 

 belonging to that portion of the cabinet which opposes the Catholic claims, 

 has embraced, it is said, the other horn of the dilemma ; and has evinced 

 considerable anxiety that the experiment of conversion should be tried. 

 This is, perhaps, the secret of the encouragement, not only which the esta- 

 blishment has received in its efforts to introduce Bible reading, but which 

 also has been afforded to the wildest sectarians, in their attempts to force 

 open the eyes of the Papists, and to inoculate them, bon gre. mal gre, 



with any other faith it may please Heaven, provided it leads them 



away from Popery, and the red lady of Babylon. In this quixotic enter- 

 prize, each party has chosen its own peculiar grounds. The established 

 clergy, having the ear of government, have naturally enough seized upon 

 the clepartment of public education, which their habits of thinking have 

 led them to suppose, of right, within their own peculiar jurisdiction. A 

 society for teaching the poor of Ireland to read and write, founded by a 

 few well-meaning individuals, was thought a fit engine for the purpose, in 

 hand ; and, having been enlarged by a powerful accession of parsons, it 

 received from the government, in aid of its own paltry subscriptions, annual 

 grants, which bad gradually increased till they attained to nine thousand 

 pounds, or more, per annum. How far such an engine was adapted to the 

 education of the poor the professed objects of its labours is a distinct 

 question. The supposition that intellectual acquirement can, or ought, to 

 precede the possession of physical comforts and civilizing ease, is among 



