ere Protestant
and Catholic to meet? If it were dangerous to faith and morals that they
should discuss together the properties of an angle or the altitude of a
star, it could hardly be safe to have them decide together a principle
of law or determine the value or limits of a political franchise. All
this was urged on Mr. O'Connell, and sometimes apparently with success,
for he more than once consented to forego the discussion of the question
in the Hall; and he would have strictly adhered to that engagement had
he not been goaded by the intemperate counsels of others.

In the desultory history of this question, two facts have been stated
requiring distinct proof. They are:--First, that Mr. O'Connell was
favourable to the principle of mixed education in the commencement.

And, secondly, that the Seceders--those who were afterwards so glibly
denounced as infidels for their support of the Godless bill--were as
much opposed to that bill as he was.

How Mr. O'Connell expressed himself when the bill was first announced
has been already stated. It is at once conceded that the writer's memory
of a conversation, in its nature almost private, were he even above all
suspicion, would not be a safe authority. In this instance there is no
need to rely on it--the statement is more than sustained by Mr.
O'Connell's recorded words. From a number of occasions, equally
available, I select one, because of its solemnity and importance.

In a prolonged and most earnest debate in the House of Commons, on
motion for going into Committee on the Bill, June 2nd, Mr. O'Connell,
after eulogising the Maynooth grant, says:--

"Take one step more, and consider whether this bill may not be
made to accord with the feelings of the Catholic ecclesiastics
of Ireland. I ought not to detain you: I am not speaking here in
any spirit of hostility. I should be most happy to give any
assistance in my humble power to make this bill work well. I
have the most anxious wish to have this bill work well, because
I am desirous of seeing education promoted in Ireland; but even
education may be misapplied power. I admit that at one time I
thought the plan of a mixed education proper, and I still think
that a system of mixed education in literature and science would
be proper, but not with regard to religious education."

And further on: "Again I repeat I am most anxious for the
success of this bill, but I fairly t