apidly gathering into it all the
great mass of the Irish Roman Catholic people. This is the most
wonderful political machine in Ireland.

Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., has recently given an account of this society
which has never been seriously questioned.

"The fundamental object of the Hibernian Society is to give
preference to its own members first and Catholics afterwards as
against Protestants on all occasions. Whether it is a question of
custom, office, public contracts, or positions on Public Boards,
Molly Maguires are pledged always to support a Catholic as against
a Protestant. If Protestants are to be robbed of their business, if
they are to be deprived of public contracts, if they are to be shut
out of every office of honour or emolument, what is this but
extermination? The domination of such a society would make this
country a hell. It would light the flame of civil war in our midst,
and blight every hope of its future prosperity."

And now we reach the core of the question. It is perfectly clear that
Home Rule would create a Roman Catholic ascendency in Ireland, but
still it might be said that the Church of Rome would be tolerant. On
that point we had best consult the Church of Rome herself. Has she ever
said that she would practise toleration towards Protestants when she was
in power? Never; on the contrary, she declares most clearly that
toleration of error is a deadly sin. In this respect the Church of Rome
claims to differ _toto coelo_ from the churches of the Reformation. In
Ireland she has passed through all the stages of ecclesiastical
experience from the lowest form of disability to the present claim of
supremacy. In the dark days of her suffering she cried for toleration,
and as the claim was just in Protestant eyes she got it. Then as she
grew in strength she stretched forth her hands for equality, and as this
too was just, she gradually obtained it. At present she enjoys equality
in every practical right and privilege with her Protestant neighbours.
But in the demand for Home Rule there is involved the claim of exerting
an ecclesiastical ascendency not only over her own members but over
Irish Protestants, and this is the claim which is unjust and which ought
not to be granted. Green, the historian, points out that William Pitt
made the Union with England the ground of his plea for Roman Catholic
emancipation, as it would effectually prevent a