Approaching this subject as one whose duties give him the spiritual
oversight of more than 200,000 of the Protestants of Ireland--members of
the Church of Ireland, and who has had twenty-seven years of experience
as a clergyman in Ireland, both in the north and in the south, the
writer may venture to speak with some confidence as to the mind of the
people among whom he has worked for so long. In doing so, he feels at
liberty to say that he is one who has always avoided religious
controversy, and who has ever made it his endeavour to be tolerant and
considerate of the feelings and convictions of others. He has a deep
regard for his Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen, and recognises to the
full their many excellent qualities and the sincerity of their religion.
It is possible to bring to a single point the reasons which make Irish
Unionists so apprehensive as regards the religious difficulty under Home
Rule. Their fears are not concerned with any of the special dogmas of
the Roman Church. But they recognise, as people in England do not, the
inevitable tendency of the consistent and immemorial policy of the
Church of Rome in relation to persons who refuse to submit to her
claims.
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