its, it was only Ned's business to
say that Ireland had done enough for the conversion of the world. And
this prelate with the Irish name and cosmopolitan heart, who thought it
an admirable thing that the clerical population should increase, while
the lay population declined; who thought that with the declining
population Ireland should still send out priests and nuns to convert
the world--was no true Irishman. He cared not a jot what became of his
country, so long as Ireland continued to furnish him with priests and
nuns for the foreign mission. This prelate was willing to bleed Ireland
to death to make a Roman holiday. Ireland did not matter to him,
Ireland was a speck--Ned would like to have said, a chicken that the
prelate would drop into the caldron which he was boiling for the
cosmopolitan restaurant; but this would be an attack upon religion, it
would be too direct to be easily understood by the audience, and as the
words came to his lips he changed the phrase and said, "a pinch of
snuff in the Roman snuff-box." After this, Ned passed on to perhaps the
most important part of his speech--to the acquisition of wealth by the
clergy. He said that if the lay population had declined, and if the
clerical population had increased, there was one thing that had
increased with the clergy, and that was the wealth of the clergy. "I
wish the cosmopolitan prelate had spoken upon this subject. I wonder if
he inquired how much land has passed into the hands of the clergy in
the last twenty years, and how many mortgages the religious hold upon
land. I wonder if he inquired how many poultry-farms the nuns and the
friars are adding to their convents and their monasteries; and now they
are starting new manufactories for weaving--the weaving industry is
falling into their hands. And there are no lay teachers in Ireland, now
all the teaching is done by clerics. The Church is very rich in
Ireland. If Ireland is the poorest country in the world, the Irish
Church is richer than any other. All the money in Ireland goes into
religion. There is only one other trade that can compete with it.
Heaven may be for the laity, but this world is certainly for the
clergy."

More money was spent upon religion in Ireland than in any other
country. Too much money was spent for the moment in building churches,
and the great sums of money that were being spent on religion were not
fairly divided. And passing rapidly on, Ned very adroitly touched upon
the