inserted, the broad end will follow upon an inclined plane.

To this consideration, therefore, must we come at last. It is idle and unworthy to attempt to evade it any longer. It will be, at once, much safer and much easier to look the difficulty full in the face. We may now take our own ground, and grant nothing till we grant all that we intend should ever be granted; if we act upon any cowardly policy of debating the question upon a third part of its merits only, we may have that extorted by piece-meal which could never have been won in the whole; our petty donations treated with indifference or even with scorn, and the principle of one concession urged with rudeness and triumph as a conclusive reason for another and another. If we wish to settle this question, our act must be commensurate with its utmost limits; if we leave any part untouched, from that part the tree will regerminate afresh, and our troubles and our labours will begin again.

The Roman Catholic Clergy in Ireland wish for a regular establishment. This is the com

mon object of the whole body, but the extent and nature of that Establishment is probably estimated in very various manners, according to the differing tempers of individuals. There are many, no doubt, amongst them whose secret aspirations of ambition, envenomed by religious hatred, stop at nothing short of levelling the Protestant Church, and setting up their own in its place. These are a small but influential and leading section of the grand army. The reverend Janus of Erin, indeed, says faintly No! from his English mouth, but all the while his Irish face is beaming with hope, and the Irish tongue roaring a perpetual Yes! To him, and to his sworn compeers, the silk gown, the corporation, the vote, the maintenance, the allowance are nothing, or next to nothing; they have plumed their wings for no middle flight; no petty conquests can detain, no obscure booty inveigle them; for it is not success or prey alone that calls them into the field; they have set their lives upon a hazard of Triumph and Revenge. The Leader

Actum, inquit, nihil est, ni Pœno milite portas
Frangimus, et media vexillum pono Suburra!

C

But judging from a common knowledge of human nature, and from past and present experience in other countries, we may, without much hesitation, presume that the mass of the Roman Catholic Clergy would be satisfied by, and even grateful for, the grant of a decent maintenance to them by Parliament. It would be a measure in itself just, and highly becoming a tolerant and a generous nation; it is authorized, if its propriety needed any authority, by the example of France, and our own conduct in Canada may be urged to the same purpose with great effect. The same relative proportion might be observed in Ireland as is actually done in France, and a Clergy sworn to celibacy would of course not require more than twothirds or even a half of what may be called the average necessary income of a Protestant Minister. No man of candor will surely object that, if we grant a legal maintenance to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland, we are therefore at all bound to make a similar concession to the various sects in England; the difference between those who have wilfully separated from

us, and those from whom we ourselves have been obliged to separate; between those who, insignificant by themselves, are not considerable altogether, in the midst of the Established Church, and those who constitute almost fivesixths of the kingdom of Ireland, should seem to be so very clear that it can hardly be thought that any one would urge the objection, except as a weapon of rhetoric. Setting aside the quality of the Religion professed, it is difficult to conceive what right the people of Scotland, as free subjects of the crown of Great Britain, can plead for the possession of a dominant Church establishment, which may not be urged à fortiori by the Roman Catholics of Ireland, for at least the grant of a decent maintenance to their Clergy. It is, indeed, a secret fear in many minds that if any secular advantages, how small soever, were attached to the Roman Catholic ministry, such advantages would operate as a premium to the propagation of a creed and a ritual which we pronounce erroneous. The answer is, that it is just possible that such might be the case, but seeing that under the

converse of such circumstances, under proscription or contumely, poverty or dependence, the priests have still stood their ground and the Religion itself increased its borders, that it remains as fair to conjecture that a change of some of these circumstances may produce a contrary result. Philosophy and History justify such a presumption. Autos-da-Fé during two centuries may subdue the human mind, but Vexation, Distress, Disability, are mere single buckets of water thrown upon a bonfire, which only serve to add fierceness to the flames. The practical effect of our penal code in this respect is undeniable; it has not, as our ancestors hoped, expelled the priests and starved the Religion, but has barbarized both to a very lamentable degree, and fixed the priestly yoke upon the wish and the thought of every Roman Catholic in Ireland. It is really not in our power to do any thing which can increase the bigotry of the people or enlarge the dominion of the Clergy; for both are at the utmost possible height of which human nature is capable, and it is almost demonstrable that any con