lands. Whether the principle be a
true one, and whether its unqualified application by any party in the
state be possible, are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for
example, that the worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits
in Orissa, would be permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster.
Even a papist procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of
the principle, however, in Lord George Bentinck's mind, was among other
things associated with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy by the state, and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland
in accordance with the plan of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect
to the vote on the endowment of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that
his opinions on this subject presented an insuperable barrier to his
ever becoming the leader of a party which had contributed three-fourths
of the memorable minority on that occasion. It was in vain that it
was impressed upon him by those most renowned for their Protestant
principles, and who were at the same time most anxious to see Lord
George Bentinck in his right position, that the question of Maynooth was
settled, and there was now no prospect of future measures of a similar
character. This was not the opinion of Lord George Bentinck. He nursed
in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration and settlement
of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the mainstays of a
Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the condition of the
Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.

It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it
was represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the
state was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit
of the age which associated true religious freedom with the full
development of the voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions
with distrust, and even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in
favour of the endowment of the Irish priesthood--that was sufficient for
that particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it
as priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
religions should be controlled by the state.

Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle
of modern pol