P., says on the
point. Speaking about a year ago in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester,
Mr. Dillon said--
"I assert, and it is the glory of our race, that we are to-day the
right arm of the Catholic Church throughout the world ... we stand
to-day as we have stood throughout, without abating one jot or
tittle of that faith, the most Catholic nation on the whole earth."
What Mr. Dillon says is perfectly true. The Irish Parliament would be
constituted on the Roman model. If there were none but Roman Catholics
in Ireland, Ireland would rapidly become a "State of the Church." But
how would Protestants fare? Just as they fared in old Papal days in
Italy under the temporal rule of the Vatican. But it may still be said
that Irishmen themselves would curb the ecclesiastical power. This is
one of the delusions by which British electors conceal from themselves
the peril of Home Rule to Irish Protestants. They forget that Irishmen
are, if possible, more Roman than Rome herself. I take the following
picture of the Romanised condition of Ireland from a Roman Catholic
writer--
"Mr.
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