216 LOUGH DERG. 



"In short, you want a little discipline ?" 

 said the Captain. 



" To be sure we do. Look at the Romish 

 Church in Great Britain : here in Ireland 

 we find it labouring under every disadvan- 

 tage — poverty, contempt, ignorance, vulga- 

 rity ; and yet our Church makes no head 

 against it. If it holds its own, it is all it 

 does ; while in England, year after year, 

 Rome is gaining ground upon us. These 

 are facts ; and there are but two ways of 

 accounting for them, that I know : no one 

 would be disposed to admit that they owe 

 their success to the superior purity of their 

 doctrines, and therefore they must owe it to 

 the superior system of their discipline. With 

 -us, every man does what is right in his own 

 eyes, every parish priest is his own bishop, 

 and every man his own priest. It is like 

 brave but undisciplined hordes contending 

 against an army inferior to them in every- 

 thing but discipline. Besides, the law com- 

 pels us to receive the off-scourings of every 

 sect, and to treat them and consider them 

 as Churchmen. If one of these scamps 

 were to be excommunicated by his priest, he 

 would become, ipso facto, a member of the 



