The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-27 00:00:00

Established Church ; and what was the consequence

Was there a single man in the country of ordinary intelli-
gence or enlightenment who was not now convinced that
if Mr. Pitt's views had been adopted at the end of the last
century, the Protestant Establishment in Ireland would
stand in a position of far less insecurity than it did at this
moment ? (Hear, hear.) Were they then, after such ex-
perience,
to repeat the same mistake ? Would they, for the '
sake of maintaining an imaginary security for the Church
a little longer—he believed that foul or five years was the
longest date which any man accustomed to read the signs
of the times would give to the maintenance of the Catholic
oath—would they, for the sake of maintaining that imagi-
nary security a little longer, add a new cause of irritation
and a new cause of hatred against the Establishment in the
minds of their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects ? That was
the question which they had to decide; for, while he did not
disguise his feeling that the Irish Church Establishment
must undergo reduction and readjustment to the state of
the country, he at the same time should say that those who
wished to prevent its entire subversion would vote un-
wisely if they concurred in the rejection of the bill before
them. (Hear, hear.)
Lord ST. LEONARDS observed that the argument of
the noble earl was to the effect that this bill was intro-
duced to modify certain portions of the Roman Catholic
Relief Act of 1829. But what would the noble earl argue
if the bill before their lordships were ono for withdrawing
the privileges which that Act had conferred upon the
Roman Catholics of the empire ? It was urged that the
present form of oath was only intended to be temporary by
those who had framed the Act of 1829. He was one of
those who had something to do with the framing of that
measure, and he ventured to say that no Minister would
have dared to pass the Act without including those safe-
guards in it. At the time of the passing of the Act the
Roman Catholics would have accepted it subject to the
condition that Roman Catholic members should not be
allowed to vote upon ecclesiastical questions. But Sir
Robert Peel objected to such a proposal, as it might give
rise to endless disputation as to what was an ecclesiastical
question. The Roman Catholic laity and clergy accepted
the Act in its present form, and they should not now seek
to escape from the compact they had freely agreed to at
the time. A few years ago, when the whole of England,
in defiance of numerous Acts of Parliament, had been par-
celled out into Roman Catholic dioceses by the Pope, the
blood of Englishmen was roused to the utmost pitch of in-
dignation. One of the immediate results of that.excite-
meat was that an Act, very stringent in words, was
passed, restraining any Roman Catholic archbishop, bishop,
or dean from styling himself after the name of his diocese
or deanery ; but the Act, though free from all ambiguity
in words, was allowed to become a dead letter, and they
saw the ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church openly
violating it with impunity. Considering that the Roman
Catholic oath as now taken was the result of a compact in
which the Roman Catholics agreed, he was not prepared to
give up the security which it offered.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE, in announcing his
warm support of the bill, pointed out that every measure
intended for the relief of the Roman Catholics of Ireland
was opposed by noble lords opposite, who professed them-
selves
the warmest friends of the country. It was so with
respect to the Emancipation Act ; it was so on the educa-
tion question ; and it was so in regard to the proposal to
reduce the number of bishops of the Irish Church Estab-
lishment—a measure, by the way, which had turned out
most beneficially for the interests of that Establishment.
Now, had the noble lord who had just sat down shown that
the welfare of the Irish Church depended upon the main-
tenance of these words of the oath which the bill proposed
to expunge ? He rejoiced to say that he had totally failed
to do so. For although there was no denying that an in-
stitution like the Irish Church was full of anomalies, yet,
having had abundant opportunity of witnessing the bene-
ficial working of an Established Church as compared with
the working of a church supported upon the voluntary
principle, he must say he regarded the principle of estab-
lishing religion in connection with the State with the
utmost favour. The great misfortune for Ireland and for
the Established Church was that the proposal of Mr. Pitt
had not been carried into effect in the year 1826, when
there was an opportunity of doing so, and that the main-
tenance of the Roman Catholic religion was not adopted
by the State. He regarded the attempt to fetter Roman
Catholic members of Parliament as both impolitic and ab-
surd, and he was well aware that the oath in its present
shape was most offensive to many Roman Catholics. In
his opinion there ought to be only one simple form of oath
applicable to every citizen in this free community, and that
ought to be framed without any reference to a man's reli-
gious belief.
Lord CHELMSFORD said it was to be lamented that
a question of the kind should have been agitated on the
eve of a general election ; and, at any rate, if it was to be
brought forward, it ought to have been brought forward
upon the avowed responsibility of the Government. It
might be said the Government had no control over the
action of independent members of Parliament ; but, in
this instance, it ought to be remembered the proposal ema-
nated from one who was a warm supporter of the Govern-
ment, and who, no doubt, would have been very glad to