Page:The Irish Church and its Formularies.djvu/20

 The middle term of the three schools is the Prayer Book, as it is according to the compromise of 1662. Many High Churchmen would very likely prefer, as a question of abstract choice, that the Prayer Book which was in use between 1549 and 1552 were still the standard; many Low Churchmen, I dare say, regret that the alterations proposed in 1689 should have been nipped in the bud; many Broad Churchmen, I conclude, have excogitated their own ideal book of the future: but as no one of these discordant sections has any reasonable chance of coaxing or coercing the two other sections to its own wishes, the moderate majority of the united triad consents to working together under a system which any one may believe might be better, but which every one knows could be worse.

The Prayer Book in its present form has become the Magna Charta of Church liberty, impartially protecting High, Low, and Broad, against the aggressive tyranny of either or both of the variant sections. An independent Irish Prayer Book recast on principles tinged with partizan feelings, would be a Gortchakoff-like circular, proclaiming the dissolution of the Treaty with England, and the conflict which would ensue here would soon make its disturbing influence felt on your side of the Channel, in aggravation of any local disturbance; or if none of home growth were to ensue, the seeds of dissension would be rapidly and abundantly blown over from England.

It is not my place to discover or to assume the proportions of High, of Low, and of Broad Churchmen in Ireland. All these sections do exist in the Irish Church, and one or two of them would probably find its or their position the weaker from the proposed alterations in the Prayer Book. The first and obvious policy of the weakened party would be an alliance offensive and defensive with their English sympathisers. On the other hand, that section in England which agreed with the victorious school in Ireland would of course