Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/72

 the Protestant rector. The priest would then diffuse in his parish the religious instruction which, at the expense of the State, he had imbibed at Maynooth.

I am not arguing, you will observe, on the large principles which would leave every religious community to be supported by voluntary contributions; I am only giving my own opinion as an individual, that the destruction of the Protestant Church in Ireland, the withdrawal of the Grant to Maynooth, and of the Regium Donum to the Presbyterians of the North, together with a refusal of all subsidies by the State towards the building of Roman Catholic churches, and furnishing glebes and incomes to the Catholic clergy, would be a misfortune for Ireland. It would manifestly check civilisation, and arrest the progress of society in the rural parts of Ireland. If given to education, it would deprive Ireland of large grants which now flow from the Imperial Exchequer. So, likewise, if the revenues were applied to public works. I, therefore, come to the conclusion, that the endowment of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the endowment of the Presbyterian Church, and the reduction of the Protestant Episcopal Church to one-eighth of the present Church Revenues of Ireland, would be just and salutary.

I come now to consider the objections which may be made by persons who, admitting the right of the State to deal with the property assigned to the Protestant Episcopal Church, would yet resist on various grounds the adoption of such a scheme as that of which I have given a rough sketch.