Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/59

 men— men of the 'foremost ability' and 'highest education in England. Let us see what impression they produced on the mind of Lord Macaulay. I take the extract from one of the able essays of Mr. Aubrey de Vere :—

What panegyric has ever been pronounced on the Churches of England and Scotland which is not a satire on the Church of Ireland? What traveller who comes among us who is not moved to wonder and derision by the Church of Ireland? What foreign writer on British affairs, whether European or American, whether Protestant or Catholic, whether Conservative or Liberal, whether partial to England, or prejudiced against England, ever mentions the Church of Ireland without expressing his amazement that such an Establishment could exist among reasonable men? And those who speak thus of it speak justly. Is there anything else like it? Was there ever anything else like it? The world is full of ecclesiastical establishments, from the White Sea to the Mediterranean; ecclesiastical establishments from the Wolga to the Atlantic; but nowhere the Church of a small minority, enjoying exclusive establishment. Look at America. There you have all forms of Christianity, from Mormonism, if you call Mormonism Christianity, to Romanism. In some places you have the voluntary system. In some you have several religions connected with the State. In some you have the solitary ascendancy of a single Church. But nowhere, from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn, do you find the Church of a small minority exclusively established. Look around our own empire. We have an Established Church in England: it is the Church of the majority. There is an Established Church in Scotland. When it was set up it was the Church of the majority. A few months ago it was the Church of