The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1868-11-01
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH on PROTEsrANTNM N
~ IRELAND,

The Md logic, subterfuge and disregard
Of the plainest lessons Of history, to which
the defenders Of Protestant ascendancy in
Ireland resort, is extremely humiliating to
those 80 conscientiously believe in the
Reform Htrines. Such reasons as the Pro-
testant hbishop of Dublin assigns for the
small fS6king of his church in Ireland is
fully heldsnp to ridicule. The Daily Necs,
itself an oxpponentof our faith, cannot swal-
low DR.. Trench's false logic. In q recent
issue it thus handles the subject:
Whatevee arguments the defenders of the
Irish Church may be tempted to appeal to,
there is at least one that in their own inter
est they should learn to avoid. In Arch
bishop Trench's recent charge may be no.
ticed o very ill-judged and dangerous resort
| to the histOxical argument in favor OF the
Establishment. The archbishop attempted
to account for the paucity in numbers of
| the Irish PrOtestants, as compared with the
Roman poPulation. by the astonishing
statement that the progress of the Protest
! hideous misunderstanding short of q
tearing up by the roots and trampling in
blood and mire of all that had been previ-
ously accomplished" This imaginative
picture referred, it seems, to the rebellion
in 164l, in which, according to some ac-
SVuAe", AOAVy tuOuSauO IOSCSVhulb WCI0
massacred. The loss of these, the arch
bishop argued, was crippling to the advance
of PrOtestantism, for, as the generate of
multiplication, they would by this time
have increased in numbers fourfold or five
fold. We fail to see how the addition of
two hundred thousand, or less, to the num-
bers of the Established Church could re-
deem it from the imputation of failure !;
but, setting that consideration aside alto
gether, is it wise for Protestant ecclesias-
tic to arouse Irish Roman Catholics to turn
back to the dark history of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, and to invite
comparison of what Professionalism may be
held to have lost in sanguinary outbreaks
of rebellion, with what Catholicism may be
held to have lost by the policy of repres-
sion, which down to the time of the Union
was sternly maintained by England From
the days of Spencer and Raleigh, to the
days of CORVALLIS and Castlereagh, the
strong hand of the law, or the fiercer grasp
of military domination was ever at the
throat of Catholicism in Ireland. No rea-
sonable man will compare this studied and
relentless oppression as an engine for crush
ing out a detested faith with the fitful bursts
Of Irish insurrection in l64l, and 1859 and
l79S
1t is rash to challenge the Roman Catho-
lies OF Ireland to the melancholy compari-
son; but, since the Archbishop of Dublin
has chosen the issue himself, those who are
uoSlilc 10 Ctle SnuTcu ESCaDllSnIne0C may De
excused for pointing ont two obvious and
notorious historical facts. The first is that,
whereas, at the date OF the revolution the
members of the Established Church formed
only thirteen per cent. and this diminu-
ton commenced, be it observed, half a CEN
tuly after the massacres which, according
to DR.. Trench, crippled Anglicanism in Ire
land. The second fact is equally striking,
and we'll known. 1t is certain that, in tue
long struggle between English Protestant
ism and Irish Catholicism, for every single
Protestant Saxon life that was taken by the
Catholic rebels, ten Irish Papists fell by the
English sword. At the end of the sixteenth
century Spencer paints the desoation that
English troops accomplished at Munster
after the insurrection of Desmond. "Not-
wlthstanding," he says, " that the same was
a most rich and plentiful country, vet, ere
one year and a-half they were brought to
such wretchedness as that any stony heart
would rue the same.
In short space there was none almost left,
and most populous and plentiful country
suddenly made void of man and beast"
Again, after the outbreak of I641, fomented
as it had been, for selfish> reasons, by
the English Lords Justices, we know,
what was the measure of repressive justice
that Cromwell dealt out to the Celts. " He'll
or Connaught" was the miserable afterna-
tive prescribed to the Catholics who chanced
to escape the edge of the sword at Drogheda
SAsS ASiO , stbu ~ Wuo pioSiaimSo tlldU
all of them (the Catholics) who after that
time should be found in any part of the
kingdo:u-man, woman, or child-might be
killed by anybody who saw or met them"
AT the same time, a reward of five pounds
was offered for the head of every Catholic
priest. In 1890, when the Jacobite rebel
lion was finally quelled, the persecution re-
ceiyed new infusion ofvigor. Then came
the penal laws; and last Of all, 1898, the
Orange party enjoyed, for the last time,
carnival of bloody vengeance. We leave
the computation of the loss to Catholicism
IN Ireland during these epocIrs of terrific
retribution and we are inclined to th.ik
that, after due consideration, he will scarce
~ claim for his own church an allowance
Ior having missed It's Slate OF the advant:t-
ges fslaughter.-DaiIy Neps English Pro
testaat)