The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-08-16
JOHN BRIGHT IN I1rEp1cK.

entertained at puOHC ulnner, on Tic 10Th
ult., by the leading personages of Limerick
city and county. A large number of dis
tinguished Catholic clergymen participated
in this demonstration. We subjoin some
extracts from Mr.. Bright's speech OH this
occasion, which was deferred from our last
edition:
have stated in the House of Commons
that I think the Irish census gives the
| number of nearly seven hundred thousand
| Protestants in connection with the Estab-
lishcd Church, and that, making the deduc-
| tiOns which arc necessary in England-and
| i'll Ireland-1 may say certainly that the
number of those WHO attend places of
worship in connection with the Established
Church, and who are now paying every
outward Difference to religion, will not be
more than five hundred thousand persons,
have provided for them by State-I will
put it, think, at below the real amount
certainly more than f6OO, 900 per annum
At the time of the Church Telnporalities
Act, in 1884, the whole revenues of the
Irish Church were estimated by Lord AL
thorpe as at not less than f3O0, 900 a year.
Some of them must have been increased in
amount since that, but there has been a
diminution which is caused by the conces-
sion of about twenty-five per cent out of
the tithes of the landlords to get them to
agree to the arrangement with regard to
the tlthcs which took place aftcrward.
think it may he reckOncd at below the
mark when I say that the income of the
Established Church is 100000 year, but
If the State were to provide with equal pro-
fuseness for the religious teaching and
services of the people of the United King
dom, it would take an annual sum of ut
least f36 900 900 sterling to provide for the
go ixnS of In >e Al,
three kingdoms with the same degree of
profuse generosity which has been exer-
cised, and is now exercised, in Ireland
These five hundred thousand are not more
than the population of Glasgow or Liver
pool. what would we say to u government
which would provide Glasgow or Liverpool
with ten or twelve bishops and from fifteen
to twenty thousand clergymen, some of
them profusely, generally all of them well
paid 1t would be quite clear TO every
man that such proposition could only
spring from the brain Of man who was in
that state of excite ment that would be akin
to lunacy. There is one way in which the
Established Church has been q link of
union with n land -precisely the way in
which the army and the police have. It
has helped, no doubt, to link nation
always ready to rebel with nation which
did not intend it to rebel successfully, but,
l believe, if it were possible to write hon
estly the history Of that Church as a polit-
ical institution, it would be found that it
had as much to do with the tendency to
rebellion in Ireland as any other circum-
stance that has been connected with the
history of the country. l should ask, gem
tlemen, one other question: Whether,
looking over history as long back as YOU
like, almost, and looking over the whole of
the civilized and Christian countries of the
globe, it is possible to find another example
of the same state of things which has OK
listed in Ireland in reference to the Ecclesi-
astical Establishment Let me tell you
should not put these questions to mere
partizans, because they are not likely to be
influenced by argument; nor would put
them to Oraugemen, whose blood SCENE
always to be at boiling point, and who are
this question; nor would put them to any
minister of the Established Church, who
cares little for his Oface, little for his people,
and, if possible, still less for his country,
though I hope there is not such mani
would put them to the thoughtful and
Christian man, who has the Same interest
in right and the same wish to discover it |
and to promote it as you have-Or as We
have ct this moment. Is it possible that
they could return any but one answer to
the case which nave laid before you7 1t |
is clear beyond all dispute, beyond all con-
his religion may be, must admit it, that the |
Church in Ireland exists, not by |
the will and love of the people, but by tho |
influence of power which does not reside I
within the limits of this island. I regard it !
as you regard it, as all men regard it who |
are outside the United Kingdom, in all tho |
of Europe, in all the States of
as ON institution more than all |
other institutions which have existed, that |
it is against the actual order of things, be- |
cause it seems to shake the sense of justice |
in every man outside of it. Itrepulses and |
revolts every man who is not connected |
with its creed, and at the same time stimu-
lates the hostility of those whom it insults |
by which it was established ard is pro-
noted: They say they are afraid the
Church will fall away, and that the Church
of Rome will get what they call the upper