o it, and receiving its impress. On the other hand,
considerable masses of those who now pull together with ourselves, are
permanent protesters against all state endowments of any one particular
church; and not only so, but they object to any possible mode of connexion
between the government and the functions of ecclesiastical bodies. What of
that? Those are most thoughtless, or else incapable of self-control, who
at such a moment of common peril remind us of differences utterly
impertinent to the question. Can we not abstract? If we are in discord
upon political points, are we not agreed upon the great interests of our
common Protestantism? Why must we be in harmony further than as to the one
vast cause which we jointly defend? Upon this logic, Whigs and Tories
meeting upon the same deck must not unite to "sink, burn, and destroy" the
enemies of their common country; or two households, Radical and
Conservative, in the same village, must not work the same engine for the
extinction of a fire which threatens every hearth. As to the case of those
who oppose the grant _exclusively_ on the principle of hostility to state
endowments of religious bodies, all of us see clearly that they travel on
our road no inch further than it leads to a private purpose of their own,
and that they will violently wheel away from us at the point where our
purposes begin to divide. But, in the mean time, our purposes at this
moment, and for the instant result, do _not_ divide; and their support is
good for so much of the struggle as they are conscientiously able to share
with us.

But surely, say another class of objectors, though it is a pity that the
Irish are not Protestants, it is better that they should have Popery for
their form of religion than no religion at all. True. And if this were the
alternative necessity, viz. that, Popery decaying, all religion must decay
in Ireland; then we also should cordially support any _safe_ mode (but not
_this_ mode) of raising the standard of education for the priestly
instructors of Ireland. But we are not called upon to legislate for that
dilemma. If, indeed, the case were that of a Popish regiment, it is
clearly the duty of government to provide a Popish chaplain, and to see
that he is properly qualified for his office; because, if you do not open
a regular channel to Popish instructions, you are sure that both
conscience and worldly honour, paramount principles for cherishing amongst
soldiers, will le