CHAPTER XII.

ROMAN CATHOLICS AND IRISH CATHOLICS.

Hindrances to Concord-Ultramontane Claims-Political Orangemen -The Catholic Laity.

IN

N the recently published despatches of the Duke of Wellington there are some interesting references to Irish affairs. The Duke, as Sir Arthur Wellesley, was for two years-1807, 1808-Chief Secretary of Ireland, under the Portland ministry. He did good service at the time, but he left with no hopeful view of the prospects of the country. He feared that no Government measure could ever make the people contented and loyal. The restoration of the soil to the descendants of its ancient owners was the idea underlying all the agitation of those times. This feeling was shared by the priests, generally themselves springing from the peasant class. Though they could not proclaim their disaffection, they dared not oppose the people, on whom they depended for subsistence. It was this dependence which led Sir Arthur Wellesley,

like many men of all political parties, to advocate the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy by the State. The Edinburgh Review on this point agreed with the Quarterly Review, in the articles through forty years on Ireland. It was a policy of expediency, which would have had no good result, and which we have happily outlived. But the clear sagacity of the man appeared in his views on national education, which were far in advance of the time. "The great object of our policy in Ireland should be to obliterate, as far as the law will allow us, the distinction between Protestant and Catholic, and avoid anything that can induce either sect to recollect or believe that its interests are separate or distinct from those of the other. I would apply this principle to education."

"To obliterate the distinction between Protestant and Catholic" is the policy which has been carried out since the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, the establishment of the national system of education, and the foundation of the Queen's colleges. The disestablishment of the Irish Church was a painful sacrifice to the same demand of equality, and the opening of Trinity College more largely to all Irishmen will be also a step in the same direction. But to consent to any scheme of separate education, would be a sad retrogression, and would perpetuate the remembrance and influence of times when the

interests of Protestant and Catholic were distinct and hostile. There never could be the possibility of common patriotism, far less of a common faith, if the two creeds were to be thus stereotyped in separation and antagonism. Let the churches remain separate, if they will, till happier times of Christian unity arrive, but let the nation be one, and its education Irish, not Romish.

Every passing year confirms the wisdom of the policy which unites Catholics and Protestants, under common laws and co-equal civil rights. They meet together at school and college, in business and the intercourse of daily life, in the professions, on juries, at the bar, on the bench. There are no subjects in the empire more peaceable and law-abiding, more patriotic and loyal, than are many of the Catholics of Ireland. Some worthy Protestant people express regret that Catholic emancipation was ever granted, and some, no doubt, are sorry that the penal laws were ever relaxed. Rome, they say, can never be satisfied by concessions, but will plot and agitate for supremacy. They do not distinguish between Irish Catholics and the Ultramontane party-the emissaries of the Vatican, who are the real fomentors of discord, and the worst enemies of Ireland as well as of England. It is the restless aggression of this faction which keeps in activity the opposing power of the Orange confederacy. The

ignorant people on both sides do not see that these are two hostile extremes of opinion, the collision of which hinders the union and peace of the nation.

There never can be tranquillity in Ireland while these religious feuds are kept up. Within a month of the Lord-Lieutenant's "progress" through Ulster, when he congratulated the nation on the peace, prosperity, and progress everywhere manifest, the startling announcement came that "civil war raged in Belfast." The most peaceful and prosperous town in Ireland was under a reign of terror. The place was divided into two hostile camps, and a state of siege was proclaimed. For several days the conflict continued, and daily returns were made of the killed, maimed, and wounded. Strong forces of police and of troops failed to overawe the combatants, and when repressed in one part of the town the battle broke out in another. Shops were shut and business suspended. By order of the mayor all public-houses were closed, but the mob broke into them, and were maddened to fresh violence. Houses were wrecked, and Protestants and Catholics who had been peaceful neighbours became active enemies. Up to the day of the outbreak the two were living and working side by side, making their profits out of the same trades, enjoying the protection of the same laws. There was no parliamentary or municipal contest in progress;

there was nothing to fight for, nothing to win or lose. There was not even the excuse of resisting an illegal demonstration. The "Party Processions Act" had been repealed. The Protestants, it was thought, might shout "God save the Queen!" and "No surrender!" one day, until their loyalty was satisfied or exhausted; and the Roman Catholics might plant disloyal emblems and sing Fenian songs another day, until they too had let off their steam. But neither party is contented with license for itself unless it can refuse it to the other.

"The Protestants are the more intolerant of the two," said the Times, in commenting on this deplorable outbreak. I happened to be in the society of some zealous Orangemen a few days before the 15th of August, and was amazed and pained by the intolerant spirit manifested. I spoke of the forbearance and good conduct of the Catholics on the 12th of July, and pleaded for a similar forbearance towards the opposite party. Even the apprentice boys of Derry were capable of recognizing the right of the Catholics to make a public demonstration on their day. After the 12th of July, the Nation newspaper could fairly point to the conduct of the Catholics, as worthy of generous imitation by their opponents. "The bloody Twelfth is past, and no red burials have attended the influence of Orange teachings or the fervour of Orange