Page:The Irish Church and its Formularies.djvu/9

 nature, which are yet substantial and cogent, the Irish Church might now risk painful embarrassments affecting her connection with that of England, by the very fact of altering, even in a few particulars, those formularies which are the joint inheritance of both. I make bold further to assert that any such breach of harmony would be so calamitous an event as to outbalance all possible advantage arising out of the additional paper bulwarks which might be thrown up against the advances of Popery on one side, or of Freethinking on the other.

After these remarks your Grace will not be astonished at the avowal that to me the advantage or disadvantage of the Committee appointed in the terms of the Duke of Abercorn's amendment turns upon one question of overpowering importance, "Does it, or does it not, by the letter of the resolution from which it takes its appointment, open the door to any possible revision at present, and for Ireland alone—irrespective of the English Church—of the existing formularies?" If it does not, it may be desirable or not, on general grounds, but I shall have nothing to say to it; if it does—however valuable it may be in other respects—it carries within itself, in my opinion, the seeds of fatal mischief.

If I am asked why I attach so much importance to the maintenance of identity between the Irish and the English Churches, I appeal to the wide circle of social and political facts. I appeal to that affinity of race, of language, of habits, of literature, and of religion, which allies the Church people of the two lands. I appeal to the bonds of friendship and of harmony so frequent between them. I appeal to the common danger, which menaces both, from Celtic jealousy, I appeal to their joint interest in the prosperity of a United Empire. I might appeal to material considerations; but it would be ungenerous to support my plea by such