hich our yet Protestant Government now lies before the
Papacy of Ireland. 'The great Catholic interest,' 'the old Catholic
interest,' I know to have been phrases of frequent occurrence in the
mouth of a head of the first Roman Catholic family of England; and to
descend far lower, 'What would satisfy you?' said, not long ago, a
person to a very clever lady, a dependent upon another branch of that
family. 'That church,' replied she, pointing to the parish church of the
large town where the conversation took place. Monstrous expectation! yet
not to be overlooked as an ingredient in the compound of Papacy. This
'great Catholic interest' we are about to embody in a legislative form.
A Protestant Parliament is to turn itself into a canine monster with two
heads, which, instead of keeping watch and ward, will be snarling at and
bent on devouring each other.

[24] In this classification I anticipate matter which Mr. Southey has in
the press, the substance of a conversation between us.

Whatever enemies the Church of England may have to struggle with now and
hereafter, it is clear that at this juncture she is specially called to
take the measure of her strength as opposed to the Church of Rome--that
is her most pressing enemy. The Church of England, as to the point of
private judgment, standing between the two extremes of Papacy and
Dissent, is entitled to heartfelt reverence; and among thinking men,
whose affections are not utterly vitiated, never fails to receive it.
Papacy will tolerate no private judgment, and Dissent is impatient of
anything else. The blessing of Providence has thus far preserved the
Church of England between the shocks to which she has been exposed from
those opposite errors; and notwithstanding objections may lie against
some parts of her Liturgy, particularly the Athanasian Creed, and
however some of her articles may be disputed about, her doctrines are
exclusively scriptural, and her practice is accommodated to the
exigencies of our weak nature. If this be so, what has she to fear? Look
at Ireland, might be a sufficient answer. Look at the disproportion
between her Catholic and Protestant population. Look at the distempered
heads of the Roman Catholic Church insisting upon terms which in France,
and even in Austria, dare not be proposed, and which the Pope himself
would probably relinquish for a season. Look at the revenues of the
Protestant Church; her cathedrals, her churches, that once belonged to
t