heaven; but the thing itself rests entirely on the ground of political and moral expediency: its object is to preserve in purity the christian faith, and to leave no part of the land destitute of instruction. If, however, this end can only be attained by the burning of heretics, and by depriving all dissenters of their rights as men and citizens, it is surely better to leave the preservation of the faith to that Almighty Providence which, in other ages, rendered its existence independent of human power. There is, indeed, something so disgusting to an ingenuous mind, so repugnant to the first rudiments of those doctrines which the Saviour of man has taught, in the endless pains and penalties which most ecclesiastical establishments have annexed to a disbelief of their creeds and confessions, that it requires a vigorous effort of understanding, and more than usual candour, to allow that the precepts inculcated in the bible are the same with those which seem to influence many of the supporters of such institutions. Hence the crowds which in such circumstances become either infidel or christian dissenters. The mind, if not perfectly inert by the poisoning influence of superstition, recoils with inexpressible abhorrence from a system, which not only attempts to fetter its own noble powers, but makes its high pre

tensions of advancing the immortal interests of man, subservient to the support of a proscribing bigotry, of a dark and relentless policy; and perhaps either disbelieves the truth and renounces the authority of the christian religion at once, or embraces, whatever be the risk, the tenets of some persecuted sect. But it is not only inimical to the repose and happiness of mankind to support an ecclesiastical establishment by harsh and cruel measures: it is repugnant to the prosperity, if not altimately to the existence, of the establishment itself.

In Ireland, nothing less than the power of Great Britain could have preserved so long the protestant church. That church has always had a very inconsiderable part of the population within its pale: the proportion at one time was as one to three, and is now nearly as one to four.* This seems to be the average proportion

This growing disproportion between the protestant and catholic population may be accounted for without supposing any accession of the former to the church of Rome. For in the first place, the attempts which were made in former times to banish the catholics from towns, has rendered the usual population, chiefly catholic; and as it has been justly remarked, it is upon this part of the people, consisting of the poorest in Ireland, that the peculiar facility of increase, occasioned by the use of po tatoes, has naturally operated with the greatest force. In

over the whole country. From this it is evident that the protestant religion has made no progress since its first establishment; nor in

the second place, the inferior orders among the Protestants, wherever situated, consider themselves as holding a more elevated rank than the orders among the Catholics: they have acquired a greater regard for the comforts and decencies of life; they have consequently a degree of respectability to lose which they struggle to maintain, and the maintaining of which becomes a check to the increase of their population. "Even the linen weavers of the "North, who are probably among the poorest of the protes"tants, earn, according to Mr. Young, about double the 66 wages of the labourers in husbandry; and feel so much of "the pride belonging to a superior condition, that they "have generally preferred emigration, to being reduced "much below their usual rank in society, although there

might be little chance of their wanting the means of sub"sistence for their families. But the humiliated Catholic, "with no rank in society to support, has sought only these "means of subsistence; and finding, without much diffi"culty, potatoes, milk, and a hovel, he has vegetated in "the country of his ancestors, and overspread the land "with his descendants. If to this consideration we add a "circumstance, in which all writers seem to agree, that of

"the great encouragement given to the marriages of the "Catholic poor by the parish priest, on account of his "deriving a very considerable part of his revenue from "them, we shall see no reason to be surprised at the in"creasing proportion of the Catholics to the Protestants. "And there can be no doubt, that while the same causes "continue to operate, this proportion will continue yearly "to increase." Edinb. Review.

deed, considering the terrors with which it was surrounded, was it possible that it should. Its adherents depended too little on the zeal and pious labours of its teachers, and a great deal too much on the efficacy of the penal statutes. In place of encountering error with the weapons of sound argument, of winning persuasion, and of a holy and blameless life, the only weapons which ought in such circumstances ever to be used, they were contented to enjoy the lucrative emoluments of the church, allowing their adversaries to be terrified or converted by the salutary influence of a proscriptive code. From the known principles of human nature, it is manifest that this plan would confirm the people in their attachment to their old superstition, and make them willing rather to relinquish their life than a religion for which they and their fathers had suffered the loss of all things," even of their political existence. This feeling is still kept alive among the mass of the Irish population, who not only console themselves with the consideration that they have endured wrongs for the true religion, but are in some instances singularly jealous of the intentions of those who make any efforts to enlighten their minds. Nor can it be expected, that this feeling will be entirely suppressed until the catholics and protestants are in every

respect on a level, until every vestige of penal statutes is removed, and the privileges of the British constitution enjoyed equally by every subject.

Let the friends of the protestant church in Ireland recollect the perilous situation in which it has been placed for ages, chiefly in consequence of these statutes. The time is fully come when these can no longer afford it even this perilous protection; when it must be indebted to the more mild, and certainly more christian, means of security and defence; active and zealous exertion in forwarding the great purposes of holy instruction. Let it have recourse to these means with greater vigour than it has yet discovered, and its safety will be proportionably secure; for it will rest on the best possible basis, and answer more fully the end of its institution. It is the most egregious folly in any case to irritate dissenters from the established church, since they are likely, however mild originally may have been their principles, in consequence of such irritation, to become its inveterate and irreconcileable enemies. But in a country such as Ireland, possessing more than five millions of inhabitants, one of which only is protestant, to provoke to madness such a disproportionate multitude, implies such a degree of inconsiderate infatua