class="i2">Is thine by special right,
To each canonical hour,
In which the bells are rung.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.

Is Good News from Ireland True? Remarks on the position and prospects of the Irish Church Establishment. By H. S. Cunningham, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. London, Longman, 1864; pp. 45.

Autumn leaves do not fall in Vallombrosa more frequent than the invectives which, for the last thirty years, have been constantly directed against the Irish Church Establishment. Men of views the most unlike, have contributed their share to this hostile literature. Lord Normanby and Count Cavour present very dissimilar types of mind and feeling, and yet both are of accord in condemning the Establishment in Ireland. Lord Palmerston and Mr. Disraeli see things from opposite standpoints, and yet neither of them has praise to bestow upon it. Every species of composition which could be employed as a weapon of offence has been made to tell the wrath of men against the monster grievance. This rich variety of arguments against the Establishment has its advantage and its disadvantage. It is, no doubt, an advantage that light should be poured in upon every side of a question so important. But it is a disadvantage to discover the question to have so many sides, that it becomes a task to master them all. It is not our present purpose to increase the literature of this subject by adding another to the already large list of attacks of which we have spoken above. Our object is rather to set forth the one argument against the Establishment, which, upon an analysis of that literature, is found to underlie all the others. If we consider the various charges against the Law-Church in Ireland mainly in reference to what they have in common, we discover that they are, generally speaking, modifications of this one objection, viz., that the Irish Establishment is an unjust application of state funds. No doubt there are other and more solemn reasons to be urged against it. No Catholic can be indifferent to the presence within it of that poison of error which robs the Church of so many children, and Heaven of so many souls. Judged upon grounds such as these, it is already condemned. But the struggle is now mainly transferred to a field other than that of religious principles. We base our objections against the Establishment on this—that it is a political and social injustice. We cannot expect all to agree with us in believing the Establishment to be a fountain of erroneous doctrine; but Mr. Cunningham's little work, named at the head of this article, is an excellent proof that right-minded men, of whatever creed, will join us in protesting against it as a political and social wrong. The proof that the Established Church is an unjust application of state funds may be stated thus:—

The State has some six hundred thousand pounds to administer every year in the religious interests of the population of Ireland. Of that population, seventy-seven per cent. are Catholics, the remainder belonging to various sects of Protestantism. The State, when it does not persecute, at least completely ignores the religion of the seventy-seven per cent., and gives that enormous sum of the public money of the country to the religion of the remaining fraction of the population. Can any injustice be more flagrant than this?

The force of this argument rests on two assertions: One, that the Catholics have an immense numerical majority over the Protestants; the other, that an enormous sum of public money is squandered upon the Establishment. If these assertions can be once proved, the