emselves of the institution. And how are they taught? A catechism
is put into their hands, consisting of, I believe, forty-five pages,
in which are three questions relative to the Protestant religion; one
of these queries is, "Where was the Protestant religion before
Luther?"

Answer, "In the Gospel." The remaining forty-four pages and a half
regard the damnable idolatry of Papists!

Allow me to ask our spiritual pastors and masters, is this training
up a child in the way which he should go? Is this the religion of the
Gospel before the time of Luther? that religion which preaches "Peace
on earth, and glory to God?" Is it bringing up infants to be men or
devils? Better would it be to send them any where than teach them
such doctrines; better send them to those islands in the South Seas,
where they might more humanely learn to become cannibals; it would be
less disgusting that they were brought up to devour the dead, than
persecute the living. Schools do you call them? call them rather
dunghills, where the viper of intolerance deposits her young, that
when their teeth are cut and their poison is mature, they may issue
forth, filthy and venomous, to sting the Catholic. But are these the
doctrines of the Church of England, or of churchmen? No, the most
enlightened churchmen are of a different opinion. What says Paley? "I
perceive no reason why men of different religious persuasions should
not sit upon the same bench, deliberate in the same council, or fight
in the same ranks, as well as men of various religious opinions, upon
any controverted topic of natural history, philosophy, or ethics." It
may be answered, that Paley was not strictly orthodox; I know nothing
of his orthodoxy, but who will deny that he was an ornament to the
church, to human nature, to Christianity?

I shall not dwell upon the grievance of tithes, so severely felt by
the peasantry, but it may be proper to observe, that there is an
addition to the burden, a per centage to the gatherer, whose interest
it thus becomes to rate them as highly as possible, and we know that
in many large livings in Ireland the only resident Protestants are
the tithe proctor and his family.

Amongst many causes of irritation, too numerous for recapitulation,
there is one in the militia not to be passed over,--I mean the
existence of Orange lodges amongst the privates. Can the officers
deny this? And if such lodges do exist, do they, can they, tend to
promote harmony among