Synod of Ulster, believed that the Episcopalians and Presbyterians were nearly equal; and others reckoned that the members of the Established Church were considerably more than double the Protestant non-conformists.1 According to the first Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction, the census now taken exhibited the following results:—

It thus appeared that Romanists were in the proportion of more than four to one to all classes of Protestants combined ;3 and that Presbyterians were much more numerous than had been commonly conjectured. This census also demonstrated constitute the one-ninth of the

that Episcopalians did not population of Ireland.4

Towards the close of the period before us, the Orange Institute suddenly collapsed. Notwithstanding their loud professions of loyalty, its adherents had been recently involved in treasonable designs. The passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829 had driven them almost to madness; and, ever since, their movements had been marked by recklessness and folly. In defiance of military regulations, lodges had been formed in the army at home as

1 Digest by Phelan and O'Sullivan, part i. 19-28.

2 The Methodists, at their own request, were reckoned as members of the Established Church.

3 That is 6,427,712 to 1,516,228, or nearly four and a quarter to one.

4 The whole population, according to the census, amounted to 7,943,940. Commissioners appointed to take the census for Ireland in 1841 estimated the total colonial and foreign emigration from the country between 1830 and 1841 to be 403,463. It is evident from the census of 1834 that, during the century preceding, the Protestants had lost ground immensely in some parts of the South of Ireland. Thus, according to a return made to Parliament in 1731, there were in the diocese of Cloyne, at that time, 14,200 Protestants and 80, 500 Romanists. Brady's Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, vol. iii. 32. This return seems to have been partial to the Protestants: but still it was an approximation to the truth. In 1834, according to the first report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction (summary, p. 28), there were in the same diocese only 14,075 Protestants and 328,402 Romanists. It appears from this that, whilst the Protestant population had declined, the Romanists had increased fourfold.

well as in the colonies. Owing to encouragement given by persons in high places, their numbers had greatly multiplied; and at length there were 175,000 Orangemen in Ireland, and 140,000 in Great Britain. In Ireland the great majority of Orangemen were Episcopalians, but some Presbyterians of little weight or intelligence belonged to them; in England the Society was exclusive, as Dissenters were not admitted to the lodges, and all the chaplains were ministers of the Established Church. In 1835, 'a Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the working of the system; and their investigations revealed the existence of a conspiracy to exclude the Princess Victoria from the succession, and place the Duke of Cumberland on the throne. At the same time the Institution was pronounced illegal by the highest law authorities. It was proposed to commence a criminal prosecution against the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Kenyon, the Bishop of Salisbury, Colonel Fairman, and others believed to be implicated in a scheme of rebellion; but, meanwhile, Heywood, the chief witness against the conspiratorsin an agony of excitement, created by a sense of the peculiarly dangerous position in which he stood-burst a blood-vessel and died. Early in 1836-under the influence of alarm-all

1 See Second Report of Parliamentary Committee on Orange Lodges, pp. 5, 6, 7, 12. First Report, Q. 2,319, 2,322, 2,323, 2,324, 2,327, 2,328, 4,632, 4,633, 4,634, 4,635. Lodges had also been formed among the police. See appendix to Third Report, p. 81. The Irish police, established in 1814, were at first all Protestants. They remained much in the same state until 1836, when the Irish Under-Secretary, Mr. Thomas Drummond, insisted on the introduction of a large infusion of Roman Catholics into the force. Memoir of Thomas Drummond, Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by John F. McLennan, pp. 266, 274. Edinburgh, 1867. About the same time stipendiary magistrates were appointed. Ibid. pp. 277, 279.

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2 Pictorial History of England, vol. vii. 488. The English Orangemen were keenly opposed to the admission of Protestant Dissenters to political privileges. In the report of the Grand Committee of a meeting held in April, 1832, Brother Eedes states that they had lately witnessed a system of political dislocation, tending to a political dissolution. The first political Act of Dislocation, sanctioned by the Legislature, took place about four years ago, in the repeal of the Corporation and the Test Act." This sentiment seems to have met the concurrence of all present. The Duke of Cumberland was in the chair on this occasion. See appendix to Report of Select Committee on Orange Lodges, iii. 16. The English Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in 1828.

the English lodges were abruptly dissolved; and, as the party was thus thoroughly humbled, it was deemed expedient not to press a formidable combination to extremities, and to give up the prosecution.1 The Irish Orangemen were not so manageable; for they were not so deeply compromised as their brethren in England. To avoid the meshes of the law, they made some changes in their regulations; but they refused to break up their organization. Notwithstanding the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church, they continue, to this very day, to keep up an unhealthy excitement among the lower orders of Protestants throughout the country.

At this period, all classes of religionists in Ireland displayed much activity. The Romanists, stirred up by the writings of Dr. Doyle and others, and encouraged by the grant of new civil privileges,3 were full of hope; and began to celebrate their worship with increased splendour. On the ground of political justice, many rejoiced in the improvement of their social position; and yet it was obvious that the country at large derived little benefit from the change. Emancipation had scarcely been obtained, when an agitation for the repeal of the Legislative Union was inaugurated. Among the most noisy of the demagogues were the priests: the chapels-notwithstanding the Leinster statutes-were converted into political club-rooms;5 and the Lord's Day was profaned by political speech-making. Protestantism, notwithstanding, fully maintained its ground. The circulation of the Scriptures, the

1 Pict. Hist. of England, vii. 490.

2 Dr. Doyle died at Carlow on the 15th of June, 1834, in the forty-eighth year of his age, and the fifteenth of his episcopate.

3 An Act, passed in 1833, entitled, “An Act to Repeal Certain Penal Enactments made in the Parliament of Ireland against R. C. Clergymen for Celebrating Marriages," &c., between Protestants and Romanists—(the 3rd and 4th of William IV., chap. cii.)—declares that priests celebrating such marriages are no longer to be deemed guilty of felony, or to be liable to pay a fine of £500. But marriages so celebrated still continued to be illegal.

See before, p. 444 of this volume.

In 1833 Daniel O'Connell attended the consecration of a chapel at Kildare: and, immediately after the ceremony, a platform was erected, from which the Agitator harangued the multitude on the subject of repeal. Fitzpatrick, ii. 473. This took place in the presence and with the concurrence of many priests, and in Dr. Doyle's own diocese.

VOL. II.

H H

spread of education, and the diffusion of religious information by tract distribution and public discussions, served to add to its adherents and to extend its principles.1 The Methodists continued to labour with great fortitude and perseverance; but the division in their body, which occurred in 1816, impaired their influence; and the awakened zeal of other denominations interfered with their advancement. Presbyterianism renewed its strength; the extraordinary eloquence and dialectic skill displayed in the Arian controversy attracted much attention;2 and, when the General Synod of Ulster was delivered from the incubus of Unitarianism, it presented all the evidences of a revived and healthy Church. The Episcopal clergy felt acutely the decline of their political power; they were generally excluded from the magistracy;3 and they lost a large share of their control over the teachers and schools of the country; but never before had the Established Church such a goodly array of faithful and accomplished ministers. In exemplary morals, in professional diligence, and in pastoral gifts, they presented a most favourable contrast to their predecessors of the eighteenth century. Towards the close of

1 In 1836 the labours of the Irish Society began to bear good fruit in County Kerry. There were about that time 250 converts to Protestantism at Dingle, and 200 at Ventry. In four parishes of the county there were 700 converts. Dr. Monck Mason's Life of Bedell, pp. 323, 324. London, 1843. According to the census of 1831, there were 228 Protestants and 6,491 Romanists in the parish of Dingle. According to the census of 1861, there were 280 Protestants and only 3,631 Romanists in the same parish. According to the census of 1831, there were only twenty-seven Protestants in the whole parish of Ventry. According to the census of 1861 there were ninety-two Protestants in the town alone.

2 In 1836 Dr. Cooke signalized himself by a discussion on the Voluntary Question, held in Belfast, with the Rev. Dr. Ritchie, of Edinburgh, and other advocates of the Voluntary principle. An account of this controversy, entitled The Voluntaries in Belfast, obtained wide circulation. About this time Dr. Cooke was presented with the degree of LL.D. from Trinity College, Dublin. He had previously received the degree of D.D. from an American college.

3 Before this time a large proportion of the rectors, and many even of the curates, were justices of the peace. There were now seventy-one municipal corporations in Ireland with 13,000 members. Most of these were Episcopalians, In 1835 there were only 200 Roman Catholics among the whole number. Memoir of Drummond, p. 305. This state of things came to an end in 1840, when the Municipal Reform Bill became law. The Irish Episcopal Church thus sustained another humiliation.

this period, some of them became infected with the spirit of the Oxford tracts, and a greater number evinced a growing disinclination to fraternise with evangelical ministers of other denominations. Still, as a body, by their piety and usefulness they adorned the denomination with which they were connected.