that
the Churches of that part of Great Britain called England and of Ireland
shall be united into one Church; and that when his Majesty shall summon
a Convocation, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of the several
provinces in Ireland shall be respectively summoned to and sit in the
Convocation of the united Church, in the like manner and subject to the
same regulations as to election and qualification as are at present by
law established with respect to the like orders of the Church of
England; and that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of
the said united Church shall be preserved as now by law established for
the Church of England, saving to the Church of Ireland all the rights,
privileges, and jurisdictions now thereunto belonging; and that the
doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of Scotland
shall likewise be preserved as now by law, and by the Act of Union
established for the Church of Scotland; and that the continuance and
preservation forever of the said united Church, as the Established
Church, of that part of the said United Kingdom called England and
Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental
article and condition of the Union."

Pitt's comment on this article was so brief as to show that he regarded
its justice as well as its importance too obvious to need any elaborate
justification. He pointed out that that portion of it which related to
Convocation had been added by the Irish Parliament, and "would only say
on so interesting a subject that the prosperity of the Irish Church
could never be permanent, unless it were a part of the Union, to leave
as a guard a power to the United Parliament to make some provision in
this respect as a fence beyond any act of their own that could at
present be agreed on." But, while he thus showed his conviction that the
permanent prosperity of the Irish Church was essential to the welfare of
the kingdom, he was by no means insensible to the claims of the Roman
Catholic Church (as founded not more in policy than in justice) to be
placed in some degree on a footing of equality with it; not only by a
recognition of the dignity of its ministers, but also by an endowment
which should be proportioned to their requirements, and should place
them in a position of worldly competence and comfort for which hitherto
they had been dependent on their flocks.[145] To use the expression of a
modern statesman, he contemplated