hat
right-minded men, of whatever creed, will join us in protesting against
it as a political and social wrong. The proof that the Established
Church is an unjust application of state funds may be stated thus:--

The State has some six hundred thousand pounds to administer every year
in the religious interests of the population of Ireland. Of that
population, seventy-seven per cent. are Catholics, the remainder
belonging to various sects of Protestantism. The State, when it does not
persecute, at least completely ignores the religion of the seventy-seven
per cent., and gives that enormous sum of the public money of the
country to the religion of the remaining fraction of the population. Can
any injustice be more flagrant than this?

The force of this argument rests on two assertions: One, that the
Catholics have an immense numerical majority over the Protestants; the
other, that an enormous sum of public money is squandered upon the
Establishment. If these assertions can be once proved, the argument is
simply crushing in its conclusiveness. Now, the proof of these
assertions is easy, and cannot be too often repeated to the Catholics of
Ireland.

On the 17th of April, 1861, the resident population of Ireland were
taken as follows:--

Members of the Established Church, 11.9 per cent.
Roman Catholics, 77.7 "
Presbyterians, 9.0 "
Methodists, 0.8 "
Independents, Baptists, and Quakers, 0.1 "
All other persuasions, 0.3 "

Thus out of a total population of 5,798,900, there were in round
numbers, Catholics, four millions and a half; Protestants of all
denominations, rather more than a million and a quarter. In Connaught
the Catholics are 94.8 per cent. of the inhabitants; in Munster, 93; in
Leinster, 85; in Ulster, 50 per cent. The Presbyterians in Ulster are
26.3 per cent. of the whole population. In none of the other provinces
do they reach one per cent.

"The Established Church ranges from 38.4 per cent. in the county of
Fermanagh, its highest level, to 2 per cent. in Clare. In Armagh it
numbers 30 per cent.; in the suburbs of Dublin 35 per cent.; in the
counties of Dublin, Wicklow, Antrim, and Londonderry, between 15
and 20 per cent.; in King's and Queen's counties, Cavan, Carlow,
Kildare, Donegal, Monaghan, and the City of Cork, between 10 and
15; in the counties