mself with
laying down the broad principle that the emoluments of a church ought
not to be raised from a people who did not belong to it. Ireland did
not ask a Catholic establishment; the Irish desired political equality
alone; they would not accept a shilling for their church. Their church
was unpolluted by the mammon of unrighteousness; the voluntary principle
had answered every purpose of the Catholics, and they desired no
connexion with the state in matters of religion. It was said, he
continued, that the number of Protestants was on the increase in
Ireland; he contended that the reverse was the case. It was said, also,
that there was danger in giving the Catholics ascendancy; they had been
in power three times since the Reformation, and they had not persecuted
the Protestants. The address of Mr. O'Connell aided very much in
deciding the question against the government. His protestations of
moderation as to the desires of enlightened Roman Catholics, and his
disclaimers of any wish for the ascendancy of his church, produced an
effect favourable to Lord John's motion among such liberal members of
the house as possessed little knowledge of ecclesiastical history. The
protestations of Mr. O'Connell were as insincere as his statements were
historically untrue. His church had never been in power without efforts
to persecute; and while he made the voluntary principle his confession
of faith, it was notorious to the leading Whigs that his pet measure
was the purchase of glebes for the Irish priesthood by the funds of
the state, and the further endowment of Maynooth College on an enlarged
scale. After various addresses, especially one in a very defiant strain
by Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell briefly replied, and the motion
was carried by a majority of three hundred and twenty-two against two
hundred and eighty-nine.

The next step was to consider the resolution in committee; and Sir
Robert Peel proposed that the committee should not be taken till the
following Monday; but the opposition, flushed with victory, would not
consent to a single day's intermission. They insisted that the committee
should be taken that very day, which was done; and the debate continued
by adjournment on the 5th. In the committee, Lord John Russell
substituted "moral and religious instruction" for "general education."
On a division in the committee, two hundred and sixty-two voted in
favour of the resolution, and two hundred and thirty-seven ag