have been forgotten, but they were not, and
now they are remembered, and will be remembered. The prejudices of the
Roman Catholics, however, and their enmity towards those who oppressed
them, increased with their numbers and their knowledge. The religion of
those who kept them down was Protestant; and think you, sir, that, be
the merits of that religion what they may, these are the people to
come over in large masses, without esteem for us, reflection, or any
knowledge of its principles, and embrace the creed of the very men
whom they look upon as their oppressors. Sir, there is but one way of
converting the Irish, and it this:--Let them find the best arguments for
Protestantism in the lives of its ministers, and of all who profess it.
Let the higher Protestant clergy move more among the humbler classes
even of their own flocks--let them be found more frequently where
the Roman Catholic priest always is--at the sick-bed--in the house of
mourning, of death, and of sin--let them abandon the unbecoming pursuits
of an ungodly ambition--cast from them the crooked and dishonest
manoeuvres of political negotiation and intrigue--let them live more
humbly, and more in accordance with the gospel which they preach--let
them not set their hearts upon the church merely because it is a wealthy
corporation, calculated rather to gratify their own worldly ambition or
cupidity, than the spiritual exigencies of their own flocks--let them
not draw their revenues from the pockets of a poor people who disclaim
their faith, whilst they denounce and revile that faith as a thing not
to be tolerated. Let them do this, sir--free Protestantism from the
golden shackles which make it the slave of Mammon, that it may be able
to work--do this, and depend upon it, that it will then flourish as it
ought; but, in my humble opinion, until such a reform first takes place
with ourselves, it is idle to expect that Roman Catholics will come
over to us, unless, indeed, a few from sordid and dishonest motives--and
these we were better without. I think, therefore, that the present
Reformation Society is unseasonable and ill-advised, nor do I hesitate
to predict that the event will prove it so. In conclusion, sir, I am
sorry to say, that I've seldom seen one of those very zealous clergymen
who would not rather convert one individual from Popery than ten from
sin."

"Why, Clement, you are a liberal!"

"I trust, sir, I am a Christian. As for liberalism, as it is g