American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-05-17
ESTABLISHED IN 1926

bitterly and justly complain? l am not q
bout TO excuse it; bus one of its reasons ID
the opposition Of the priest to the efforts Of
the land proprietor to elevate his senanlry,
and the fierce jealousies which the priest
excites in the minds ofthe people. There
is but little Absenteeism in Scotland; Why
is il so general in Ireland? The cause We
find in the difference Of the religion Of ths
two people, If the parish priest Of ireland
was like the parish minister of Scotland,
the Marquis Of Sligo would have as pleas
ant home upon his estate as the Duke Of
Buccleugh, or the Marquis Of Broadal-
bane.
Popery does nothing for the education
of the people cf Ireland. With the wealth
ofthe middling classes under its control,
and almost at Its beck, where are its schools
and its colleges for the education of its
people? You send to Ireland for money
to establish them here; why erect none
there? Connaught, where your church
has complete control,i is analmost unbroken
mass Of ignorance. And Munster is pre-
cisely like it. And these are the portions
of it where the famine is now raging, Ig-
norance brutalizes, and sensualizes, and
renders men improvident. 1t places our
higher in subsection to our lower nature;
and in Withholding education from the
people popery has degraded Ireland. And
wherever its children are carried by the
tide of emigration, their want of education
places them in the lowest grade Of society:
and they are more dreaded as burden,
than hailed as an accession. Without the
high aspirations which knowledge imparts,
and without the self-respect which it Gre
ates, they are satisfied with being menials
where they might be masters-to be car
riers of mortar, where they might be chief
builders on the wall. If the ignorance of
Ireland has any thing to do with the deg
radiation of Ireland, I charge that ignorance
upon Poprry.
And if Absenteeism, and sub-letting, and
thetithe system do much to impoverish the
people, Popery does yet more. II meets
them at the cradle, and dogs them TO the
grave, and beyond it, with its demands for
money. When the child is baptized, the
priest must have money. When the moth
er is churched, the priest must have mon
ey. When the boy is confirmed, the bish-
op must have money. When he goes to
confession, the priest must have money
When he partakes of the Eucharist. the
priest must have money. When visited in
sickness, the priest must have money
If he wants charm against sickness or
| the witches, he must pay for it money
When he is buried, his friends must pay
money. After mass is said over his re-
mains, plate is placed on the coffin, and
the people collected together on. the occa-
sion are expected to deposit their contribu-
ton on the plate, Then the priest pockets
the money, and the people take the body
TO the grave. And then, however good
the person, his soul has gone to Purgatory;
and however bad, his soul may have stop
Eped there. And then comes the money
for prayers andmasses fordeliverance from
purgatory, which prayers and masses are
continued as long as the money continues
to be paid Now when we remember that
seven out of the nine millions of the people
OF Ireland are papists, and Of the most big
oted stamp; aud that this horse Ieech pro-
cess of collecting money, whose ceaseless
cry is 'gire, give, is in operation in every
parish; and that as far as possible every
individual is subjected to it, can we won
der at the poverty and the degradation Of
Ireland? Can we wonder that its noble
hearted, undetermined people, are every
where hewers of wood and drawers Of wa
ter? Shame, shame, upon your church,
that it treats a people So con6diHg and
faithful SO baselyi Shame, shame uponit,
that it does so little to elevate people that
contribute so freely to its support o,
| Popery, thou hast debased my country
thou hast impoverished its people--thou
hast enslavedi;s mindl From the holman
on the ladder--fom the digger Of the ca
nal-from the ostler in the stable--frohn
| the unlettered cook in the kitchen, and the
maid in the parlor--from the Rotor in the
street-from the cuIprit at the bar--ffom
the state prisoner in his lonely Dungeon
from the victim of righteous law stepping
into eternity from the gallows. for mur-
der committed under the delirium Of pas.
sion or whisky. j hear protest against
thee as the great cause of the deep degra-
dation Of as noble people as any upon
which the sun shines in the circuit Of its
glorious wayl "a.
Ny dear sir. your religion is for the
benefit of the priest and not that Of the
people. Its Objects not to spread light,
but darkness, not to advance civilization
but to retard it,--not to elevate but TO de-
press man, that he may the more readily be
brought under your influence. And we
have in Ireland type of what our happy
land will be when the priest wields the
power here which he wields there.
Town, dear sir. that nave digressed q
little from my original object in these LETT
ters. Butinmy next shall commence
with the reasons which on the most mature
reflection yet prevent me from returning
Q the pale Of your church.
With great respect, yours.
KIRWAN.