there is so much Romish property in the country that might be made available for that purpose?

Again, you have proved from historical documents of unquestionable authority, the falsity of the opinion that the Church is an enormously wealthy Establishment. Indeed, so far from this being the case, I maintain that, in direct opposition to the generally prevailing opinion, that one cause (and that in itself a sufficient one) of the failure of the Reformation in Ireland, has been the state of extreme poverty and destitution, in which that Church existed from the Reformation to a period of a very recent date, and that, independent of this, and other sufficient causes for the failure of the Reformation, means highly improper and injurious were resorted to, namely, the selection of individuals, to carry it forward, who were disqualified, by character, and want of information for the great work assigned to them. If you add to this, that the language of their affections, the only language in which they could think, was not only neglected, but forbidden to be used, as a vehicle of religious instruction; can we wonder at the melancholy spectacle which the history of the country presents to our view, and the consequences that followed a policy so unfeeling and pernicious?

And yet if none of these circumstances had impeded the progress of truth, the long and desolating wars of Elizabeth; the protracted and ruinous rebellion and massacre of 1641, fomented and sustained by the Jesuits; the iron rule of Cromwell; the civil contests prior to the Revolution in 1688; and the bloody warfare subsequent to that great event, together with endless proscriptions and confiscations, would in themselves have formed barriers to its progress which no efforts on the part of the Reformed clergy

could have broken down, had they even been fully competent to the work assigned to them.

The Church had scarcely time to breathe after the bloody wars of the Revolution, when another severe trial arose from a different quarter. In the year 1734 the Irish landed proprietors conspired to exempt all the grass lands from tithe, and succeeded in the attempt, through the celebrated vote of the Irish House of Commons, against the tithe of agistment, and by that vote (professedly adopted for the benefit of the Protestant interest, and yet compared with which, the passive resistance of modern days is of trivial criminality) they literally abolished tithes in three-fourths of the kingdom, and threw the clergy for support upon the oats and potatoes of the pauper farmers.

The fatal effects resulting from this measure were, that it encouraged pasture, and discouraged tillage; that it relieved the rich Protestant landlords and graziers, while it threw the burden of supporting the Church upon the poor Roman Catholic farmers and cottiers, and as a natural consequence, so impoverished the benefices of the clergy as to compel the Government, and the bishops, to aggravate an old evil arising from the poverty and plunder of the Church-viz., to unite several parishes into one, thus diminishing the number of the working clergy, in order to afford a decent competence to the remainder.

We are now arrived at that period in the history of the Reformed Church in which it can be said, for the first time, that anything like an adequate provi sion was made for her ministers. In consequence of the American war, the agriculture of the country ra pidly increased, consequently their income rose in proportion, thus enabling them to assume the ap

pearance of professional men, and to occupy that station which fitted them to minister with effect to the temporal and spiritual wants of the people: nor do we hesitate to affirm, that their sphere of usefulness increased with the means provided for their existence, as an ecclesiastical body.

Thus, when it pleased God to awaken many of the ministers of the Established Church in Ireland from a state of supineness and inaction, and, in accordance with their solemn ordination vows, they became anxious," with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word," when not only the members of their own flocks became objects of their spiritual solicitude, but the ignorant and superstitious population around them, when scriptural schools were opened in their respective parishes, and, above all, when the Irish tongue was made use of in many districts as the vehicle of religious instruction, then, and not till then, was it discovered, that her wealth was the cause of all the failure that had attended her former ministrations, as well as the fruitful source of multiplied continuing evils; presenting the anomalous spectacle, as her enemies asserted, of a richly-endowed Church in the midst of a depressed and pauper population.

The cry was heard in England, and a sacrifice was demanded; and to appease the growing spirit of Popish domination, one half of the property of the Church was confiscated, and scriptural education suppressed, (as far, at least, as the wealth and patronage of England could do it.) Now let us examine what has been the result of all this system of false conciliation. Has our country become more peaceful, better cultivated or more prosperous in either its commerce

or manufactures? Let its hardly-suppressed rebellion-its blood-stained fields-its starving and demoralized population-its bankrupt gentry-its unemployed manufacturers-answer these questions. The lover of his country sickens as he surveys the hopeless and accumulating misery to which it seems doomed; standing forth with its fine soil, its noble rivers, its natural resources, as the plague-spot of Britain, a proverb and a by-word among the nations of Europe. In fact, there is no parallel to our state of national degradation in either ancient or modern history, and again are we forced to re-echo the complaint of the Romish historian, "From the days of St. Patrick to the Council of Cashel, was a bright and glorious era for Ireland. From the sitting of that Council to our times, the lot of Ireland has been unmixed evil, and all her history a tale of wo."

Let me now call your attention for a few moments, while we consider the origin of the present Church of Rome in Ireland. At the close of the reign of James I., the Pope of Rome organized a distinct Romish Church for Ireland, which did not before exist, and which, from that day to the present, has been the fruitful parent of dire and innumerable ills. The origin of this new Romish hierarchy in Ireland, is thus described by Philip O'Sullivan, the ultra-Catholic, as he is called, who was living an exile at the Court of Spain, and who admits, that in 1621, all the Irish sees were occupied by Protestant bishops, and that there were only four nominal bishops connected with the Romish Church in Ireland, two only of whom resided in that country, the other two, being deeply implicated in rebellion, resided abroad. "In Ireland," says O'Sullivan, "there are some still attaching themselves to the religious orders, still more

are receiving ordination for the sacred office. These administer the sacraments, assist such as are firm in the faith, establish the wavering, support the falling, raise up the downcast. They expound the holy Gospel, preach to the people, expose the artful designs of the heretics. The more frequently they are ordered to quit the kingdom, the more readily they remain in it, and even flock together to it. To avoid being observed by the English, they dress themselves in the apparel of lay persons, and represent themselves, some as merchants, or medical men, some as Knights, equipped with swords and dirk, others under other characters and pretences. But in order that there may be priests in all parts of the kingdom to attend to the care of souls, a salutary plan has been set on foot, for the better understanding of which, we are to recollect, that in Ireland, there are four archbishops, and a large number of bishoprics; and that at the present day (A. D. 1621), they are all held by ringleaders of heresy, (i. e. Protestant bishops,) and that Catholic prelates are not appointed to their titles, unless in some few instances, for this reason, that without the ecclesiastical dues, it seems that such a number of bishops could not support their rank and consequence. For which reason four archbishops, who have been consecrated by the Roman Pontiff, are appointing priests or clerks, or persons of the religious orders, for vicars-general in the suffragan bishoprics, with the sanction of the Apostolic See. These latter again, appoint others for the charge of the parish churches. And Eugene Macmagauran, the (titular) Archbishop of Dublin, and David O'Carney, of Cashel, encountering great perils and immense labours, are personally feeding the sheep belonging to their archbishoprics; while Peter Lom