The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, OCT. 6

PROTESTANTISM AND DISESTABLISH-

MINT.

A VERY real and deep-seated dislike and fear of
what are supposed. rightly or wrongly, to be the
principles of the Roman Catholic Church ie un-
doubtedly a characteristic of large numbers of
Englishmen. If we do not take this sentiment
into account, if we do not make full allowance for
the extent to which it influences those who hold
it, a e shall be in danger of making a great error
in our political calculations. Whether we agree
with the in or not, we must not shut our eyes to
the fact that an important and widely dis-
tribut.•l ion of our fellow-countrymen
are anxiously asking how the interest.
of Kahan Catholicism will be affected by the
disis,tablishment of the Irish Church. They are
Liberals. they say, and they have always voted for
the Liberal party ; but now they are told that in
doing so at the approaching election they will be
really voting in support of Popery. And they
COllfekh that this thought troubles them, and makes
them doubt what is the right course to take under
the circumstances. '%I! propose to look at the
question from their point of view, to as-
sutu.• an an axiom that any measure that
help, forward the cause of Roman Catholicism is,
so far as it does this, a luisaitivous measure.
Judg.sl by this standard, what shall we say about
the disestublishment of the Irish Church *f

First of all, then, we say that it is never lawful
to do evil that good may come. If it could be
prowsl that the Irish Church is really, what its
friends arc so fond of calling it. a great bulwark
against Popery, we should not be justified in
maintaining an institution which violates the first
principles of political justice. A nation has no
right to govern another nation in utter disregard
of its opinions and wishes. Ireland is a Roman
Catholic country, and if a Protestant Government
undertakes to rule a Roman Catholic country it is
bound to do so fur the good of the people who in-
habit it. Now no sophistry can make it appear
that this simple rule of doing to Irishmen as we
would that Irishmen should do to us is obeyed
by keeping up a Protestant State Church
in Ireland. If anyone doubts this let him
imagine the relative size and position of Eng-
land and Ireland reversed, and Ireland with a
population of 20,000,000 Roman Catholics ruling
England with a population of 3,000,000
Yrutcmtat,l M. should we think it just if the Irish
vw ple were to say to us :- -The majority among us
is Roman Catholic, and for that reason we intend
to establish the Roman Catholic Church in Eng-
land, though only very few Englishmen belong to
it, and we intend further to make England pay the
expenses In some respects this imaginary ease is
au uuderstatement of the truth. We have done
worm. things to Ireland than we have hero sup-
posed Ireland doing to England. But let us take
the parallel as complete— is it not one which must
open the eyes of everyone who looks at it
We are doing to Ireland that which, if it were
done to us, would drive us into instant rebellion.
An act does not change its character because it is
done by Englishmen. The commands of justice
lire unalterable, and they apply to all alike.
Moral duties take precedence of religious duties.
It can never be right to do wrong, even though it
may seem for the moineut that the cause of Pro-
testantism is strengthened by our doing it.
In the neat place, we ought to remember that

the worst compliment a man can pay to his religion
is to assume that it is sure to got the worst of it in
a fair fight. Of all tho ways of showing disbelief
in the religion you profess this is the most signifi-
cant. A creed to be worth anything must be
hardy. If, in order to keep it. alive at all. it must
le• shut up in a hot-house, sheltered from every
rough bleat, and watered with the kindly dews of
State patronage, it is a mere exotic. Is this what
English Protestants think of Protestantism ? If
not, is it wise to act as though they did think
this of it? It has often, and quite justly,
been made a reproach to Roman Catholics
thnt, with sonic signal exceptions, they wish
the Porn to govern Rome, no matter
how badly he governs it, or bow unwilling the
Romans may be to be governed by him, because
they think the interests of the Church might suffer
by the overthrow of his temporal prerogatives.
But in what does their conduct differ from that of
Protestants who insist on maintaining the Estab-
lished Church in Ireland, no matter how much the
Irish people may dislike it, or how much ill-
feeling it may create in the country, because they
are afraid that in some unexplained way its abo-
lition may be injurious to Protestantism ? This is
no question of endowing Roman Catholicism in
Ireland. Even the Conservatives seem to have
given up that notion—at all events for the pre-
sent. It is simply a question of removing the ar-
tificial aids by which the State has tried to bolster
up Protestantism in Ireland. In future if the
Irish Church is disestablished, English Protestants
may say to Truth Roman Catholics, We would you
were altogether such se we are, but we
will use no unrighteous means to make
you so. All we care for is that Protestantism
shall have in Ireland what Roman Catholicism has
iu England—s fair field and no favour. In pro-
portion as we have faith in our religion we have
faith in its power to hold its own against all
Corners.

Hitherto we have argued, first, that even if the
abolition of the Irish Church were to give some
advantage to Roman Catholicism, it would be in-
cumbent upon us to do justice at all hazards; and
secondly, that we must have but a poor opinion of
Protestantism if wo think that, in order to maintain
it, we must have recourse to foul means. We may go
further than this, however, and say that there is at
least one point in which the diseetablishment of the
Irish Church must be a real disservice to Roman
Catholicism in Ireland. If you want to put the
most dangerous weapon possible into an enemy's
hand, you cannot do better than inflict upon him
an injury, not severe enough to cripple him, but
yet severe enough to enlist on his behalf the sym-
pathy which the spectacle of injustice always
creates. The old way of governing Ireland was
extremely wicked, but it was at least intelligible.
We wanted to put down Roman Catholicism,
and so we treated our Roman Catholic
countrymen rather worse than the Southern
planters used to treat their slaves. We
would not let them teach their children, and
if a Roman Catholic owned a good horse we made
him sell it to the first Protestant for .1. Since the
penal laws were abolished no Roman Catholic has
been subjected to any civil disability. But instead
of reversing our policy frankly we have reversed
it grudgingly. The Roman Catholic Church is
deprived of no real power; on the contrary, we
insist upon giving her an additional power, which
but for us she could never have obtained. Wo
place her in a position which enables her members
to say, if they are 60 minded—England is
too timid or too mean to deal fairly by us.
She tried to destroy us, and the attempt
was a signal failure. But though she no longer
hurts us in person, she likes to hurt us a little in
pocket. It is a small trifle to pick your enemy's
pocket after you have tried in vain to take
his life, but it is the sort of triumph which suits
English Protestants. This is what wo enable
Irishmen to say by our persistent policy in the
matter of the Irish Church. Is this true states-
manship ? Is it the way in which in the long run
the interests of any religion can be promoted ?
Whether, when the Irish Church is taken out of the
way, Roman Catholicism will lose ground
in Ireland is more than we can say.
But we are quite certain that no
Protestantism which is worth calling a religion
can possibly be injured by such a step. On the
contrary, the very first and most indispensable
condition of its claims being put fairly before the
Irish people is that it should no longer be asso-
ciated in their minds with the persistent infliction
of a great political wrong.

CO-OPERATIVE STORES AND TRADING
FIRMS.

ht all the co-operative stores established up to
a very recent period, so far as we are acquainted
with their history, great care seems to have
been taken to avoid the temptations of
ordinary trading, and to make and keep
the association, what it professed to be, a
combination of consumers bent solely ou obtain-
ing the best and purest articles at the lowest price.
For this purpose it was stipulated in the articles or
rules of association that the interest payable on
the capital invested in starting and working the
concern should never exceed a certain amount,
the maximum being generally fixed, we be-
lieve, at 5 per cent. ; while in furtherance
of the general object, and with the view, perhaps,
of preventing the thing from becoming too pro-
miscuous, there was the reasonable provision that
non-shareholders participating in the benefits
should pay a mull sum annually towards defray-
ing the expenses. It was on these fundamental
principles that the great Civil Service Stores
in the Ilaymarket and in Monkwell-street won
founded; and it is through acting upon them that
they have obtained such extraordinary seamen.
With such a basis managers could clearly have but
one object, that of securing for customers good
articles at the minimum prices required to meet
the working expenses and yield a moderate return
for the capital advanced. Now a store has just
been opened in the north-west district of the
metropolis in which the requisite guarantees seem
to be wanting. Commencing as a co-operative
establishment, it is in reality a gigantic
shop, absorbing a large proportion of the
custom which has hitherto flowed to tradesmen in
the district, without affording to the customers
any real and substantial security for being better
aersed. There is no limit, so far as appears on the
face of the printed documents, except that imposed
by their own consciences, to the interest, or rather
?riot, which the shareholders may receive; any
one who presents himself at the counter may ob-
tain what he demands without inquiry ; goods
are sent home without any charge to the
Le3er ; orders are called for if desired.
The directors, nu doubt. arc highly respectable
men ; but so abso are many retail dealers
whose business they are attracting by the
assumption that they cannot possibly have any per-
sona interest different from that of the ordinary
customer. The only justification for inter-
ference by co-operative associations with or-
dinary trading enterprise is that some clear

positive benefit is derived by the members.
There is hardly any good without attend-
ant evil ; an 4 it is certainly to be regretted
that co-operative stores, by interfering with re-
tail trading operations, have injured many an
honest and deserving shopkeeper. In the case
in question there is neither membership nor
adequate security for benefit to customers. While
inhabitants of the district are transferring
their custom, perhaps with regretful feelings, to
the new establishment, no substantial benefit is
assured to them by its principle* and modes
eprrandi. The co-operative movement has been
mot
by some tradesmen through advertisements
with some such headings as " Co-operative Stores
" no longer nocessam" and with promises through
the same medium to supply on as moderate terms
as the " Stores." Well might such persons ask,
" Why desert us to patronise an establishment
" which in principle and all essential points does
" not differ from ours?"