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Union, slowly but surely, by the same means, which, as all history shows, work under the same circumstances, whether in a commonwealth or a corporation, forwarded the decline and fall of the outward and visible fabric of the Irish Church. But more than this. The Church is unpopular as an institution. We do not mean that speculative and hungry young radicals make the Irish Church their "pièce de resistance" in the political feast of the House of Commons. Nor do we call it unpopular because it is the Church of a minority; of how great a minority we shall presently see. The clergy are, on the contrary, highly esteemed. Their fortitude and sufferings during the tithe war; their indefatigable labours and extraordinary sacrifices during the famine have endeared them to the Irish, as men. As ministers, they, as a body, identify themselves with no principle dear to the nation. They are Protestants; or if more than this, they call themselves members of the Church of England. They lean to dissent. They shrink from all religious intercourse, that is not leavened with polemical sharpness, with Roman Catholics. They exhaust all their energies in preaching. Come prayer and sacrament when they may, there is always preaching. If you pass through a town, the buildings with some show of Church taste as to structure, with doors open and persons going in and out, are Romish chapels; the building closed all week, with its prim look and cheap and nasty rough cast, that is the church. It is closed indeed; but from every wall that can bear an advertisement the reverend vicar thunders forth in capitals his denunciations of absolution and confession, and other horrible doctrines of the Gospel. From the daily print come insolent invitations to the Roman Catholics to come with their Bibles and be converted; invitations that too often are brimful of deadly heresy. And with what result? While tens are gained, hundreds are lost. If hundreds are gained in Connemara, thousands are lost through mixed marriages or direct proselytism in the towns. No wonder that the laity are despondent, and that their hearts fail them when they contrast the noisy, unspiritual, and unfruitful movements of the clergy with the systematic, sure, and palpable growth and development of Romanism, which has now of course no cause to hide itself. To that result, whatever else has contributed, most certainly the present generation of Irish Churchmen has done its part. Through poverty, contempt, insolence, and oppression, the Romanists have struggled up to wealth and influence. Against eight Roman Catholic Judges may be reckoned four Protestants, as they would call themselves. This

1 In the heat of the Achil missionary proceedings, the idea was struck out of reviving the claims of the clergy of the Irish Church to the succession of Saint Patrick. The claim was urged sincerely, and with all truth in its favour; but, coupled with a fanatical denial of sacerdotal power and sacramental grace, it was deprived of all real power of influencing the Irish masses. It was nothing more than galvanizing one limb of a corpse.

is but a sample. Roman Catholic society begins to cultivate exclusiveness, and heretical friendships are forbidden. And in the teeth of such facts, what shall we be told? Why, that the Irish Church has demolished, is demolishing, will demolish Popery. Question this, and you are a Puseyite. Give a hint to the effect that that was a happier line of action to pursue which led Bishop Jebb to preach from the steps of a Romish altar; that something is to be learned as to teaching and doing from the Romish priesthood; that the centralized infidelity of Ulster is even a worse evil than the diffused hereticalness of popular Romanism, and you are a Jesuit in disguise; a traitor to "our common Protestantism;" an emissary of that abominable Tractarianism, which in a marvellously compounded metaphor, a living Irish pulpit-celebrity delights to describe as "the suspension bridge between Popery and the Devil."

Such rabid sectarianism, which would lead the lowest of the low Churchmen in England to be regarded as a semi-papist on the other side of the channel, cannot fail to alienate general sympathy. In point of numbers the Church of Ireland barely holds its own. What follows we extract from the "Irish Church Directory," which, despite its many inaccuracies, reflects the highest credit on its spirited publisher, Mr. J. Charles:

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Omitting decimals, out of every 100 of the population of Ireland, 12 are Churchmen; 78 are Roman Catholics; 9 Presbyterians; and 1 of some other sect, the chances being 2 to 1 in favour of this individual being a Methodist. The Church has 58 of its members in Ulster; 25 per cent. in Leinster; 11 per cent. in Munster; and 6 per cent. in Connaught. The Roman Catholics are more equally distributed: their proportion being 32 per cent. in Munster; 28 per cent. in Leinster; 21 per cent. in Ulster; and 19 per cent. in Connaught. The Presbyterians are the least diffused of all: 97 per cent. of their number being in Ulster; 2 per cent. in Leinster; and the remaining 1 per cent. divided between Munster and Connaught, rather the larger share belonging to the former. Indeed, the counties of Antrim (including Belfast and Carrickfergus) and Down contain 60 per cent. of their whole body; and if the counties of Londonderry and Tyrone be added, these four counties will comprise 81 per cent. of all the Presbyterians in Ireland. Of the Methodists, 71 per cent. are in Ulster, 13 per cent. in Leinster, 10 per cent. in Munster, and 6 per cent. in Connaught.

"In relation to the population of the Provinces, the Church forms 20 per cent. of the inhabitants in Ulster, 12 per cent. in Leinster, 5 per cent. in Munster, and 4 per cent. in Connaught. The Roman Catholics amount to 95 per cent. in Connaught, 94 per cent. in Munster, 87 per cent. in Leinster, and 50 per cent. in Ulster. The Presbyterians are 27 per cent. in Ulster; and in none of the other provinces do they reach 1 per cent.: the proportions being per cent. in Leinster; per cent. in Connaught; and per cent. in Munster.

The Methodists are about 1 per cent. in Ulster; and nowhere else do they amount to per cent.

"In the counties and towns the Church attains its maximum in Fermanagh, where its numbers are 39 per cent. of the gross population; Co. Armagh ranks next, where they are 31 per cent.; then come in order Belfast, Co. Tyrone, city of Dublin, and Co. Down, in all of which they count 20 per cent. or upwards. The Roman Catholics reach their highest point in the Co. Clare, being there nearly 98 per cent. of the population; next come Mayo, Kerry, Roscommon, Galway, &c. Indeed in 16 counties they reach 90 per cent. at least; 3 of these being in Connaught, 6 in Munster, the rest in Leinster. The Presbyterian maximum is in Carrickfergus, where they are 59 per cent.; and Co. Antrim 53. In Down they are 45 per cent., Belfast 36, and Co. Londonderry 35; but in 22 counties, embracing the whole of Munster and Connaught, and nearly all Leinster, they do not reach 1 per cent. of the gross population. In Co. Roscommon they are 1 in 620 of the population; in Co. Galway, 1 in 640; in Co. Clare, 1 in 707; in Co. Kerry, 1 in 801; and in Co. Kilkenny, 1 in 1,164.

"In all Ireland there are to every 100 Churchmen 662 Roman Catholics, 78 Presbyterians, 6 Methodists, and 3 of other sects. In Ulster to every 100 Churchmen there are 247 Roman Catholics, 131 Presbyterians, 8 Methodists, and 3 of other sects.

"Of the 322 Jews, 252 are in Dublin city, 12 in Dublin county, and 2 more in the rest of Leinster. Ulster has 54, Belfast taking 11 of these, Down 6, and Tyrone 20. Munster and Connaught each possess one solitary son of Israel.

"During the twenty-seven years which have elapsed since 1834, the Church has lost 15 per cent. of its numbers, the Roman Catholics 30 per cent., and the Presbyterians nearly 18 per cent. The total loss of the Protestants is little more than one half that of the Roman Catholics; the former being about 16 per cent., the latter about 30."

Here we conclude our long and instructive extract. The excellent statistician goes on to pronounce of the result, that it "cannot be regarded as other than satisfactory." That is, that while all Protestants, including, that is, Arianising Methodists, and Presbyterians, whether orthodox, Arian, Semi-arian, or Humanitarian (and all are there, and which is which would require some unexampled casuist to define) and it is only in an Irish Church Directory such an amalgamation could be attempted-have lost only 16 per cent. from say a total of 1,200,000, the Roman Catholics have lost more. More, that is 30 per cent. out of a population at least five times as numerous; a population upon whom fell almost exclusively the heavy visitation of famine, pestilence, and emigration, in the awful epoch of the potatoe blight.

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The exact decrease in the decad 1841-1851 was 1,623,154, in the decad 1851-1861 787,842, a total of 2,410,996. We believe it capable of proof, the 2,300,000 at least may be deducted from the Roman Catholic totals. Decrease this of population. What further account must be allowed under the head of religious

registration, to justify and verify the claims and vaunts of the societies for the conversion of Roman Catholics, we must leave to the editor to determine for us.1

3. But we must draw to a close a subject which we confess fills us with sadness. We complain that, forgetful of her higher calling, insensible to the stirrings of those Divine instincts that ever work in the Church, the Irish Church has been content to be a state machine. Disregarding the high endowments which it would have been a virtue for her to glory in, her Apostolical succession, her Divine authority, her ritual and symbolic purity, her serene and dignified maintenance of liturgical order and completeness, she triumphs in imaginary successes, and indulges her zeal to the discredit of her charity. No wonder the world is weary of all this: no wonder that majesty itself prefers a Presbyterianism which has lost, to worshipping in a Church which seems to have caught the fiery and fanatical temper of John Knox. Unsupported by Parliament, unrepresented by any party, she cannot fail to invite the reforming attentions of an all-reforming House of Commons. While the English universities have succumbed, while the English branch is trembling for its rates, how can the Irish Church hope to escape? She has ridden long in calm waters, under the shelter of the English ship, despising alike the shelter and the shelterer. She has not been grateful. While on every side, in every form, the English Church awaking from her criminal indolence, is putting forth all her active powers, and Bishops of every school are preaching, visiting, meeting their clergy, and organizing spiritual aids of every kind, the Irish Church, with little more to do than is to be done in the one diocese of Ripon, and with twelve to do it, pursues the most even tenor of its way, only to be roused when a Papist is to be converted, or a revival to be enjoyed. Will she not be warned in time?

1 The number of families in Ireland in 1861 shows since 1851 a decrease of 6.24 per cent. This decrease is most apparent in the counties Limerick, Queen's, Tipperary, Kilkenny, King's, and Clare [the most popish, and with two exceptions, the least controversial.] It has been least in Ulster, where it only amounts to 0.53 per cent. An increase has taken place in the number of families [in the most Protestant and uncontroversial parts] in Belfast, Carrickfergus, Dublin City, Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, and Sligo.

POEMS BY MR. AND MISS ROSSETTI.

The Early Italian Poets, from Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), in the Original Metres, together with Dante's Vita Nuova. Translated by D. G. ROSSETTI. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

Goblin Market, and other Poems. By CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. With Two Designs by D. G. ROSSETTI. Cambridge and London: Macmillan and Co.

THE first of these volumes is interesting not only because it takes unoccupied ground-though this may tend to make sure its success-but because its author has performed his task as a labour of love, with remarkable ability, and has produced a book of great and singular merit, which will undoubtedly be very widely regarded as a most valuable addition to our poetical literature.

Generally speaking, the sources from which Mr. Rossetti has gleaned these treasures of early Italian literature are both unknown and unsought by English readers; and it is only when some bold pioneer, such as he, comes forward to explore these comparatively unexplored regions of literature, that, first one and then another follows in his wake, and so the labours of the originator are appreciated and imitated.

The volume before us, which consists of nearly 500 pages, is divided into two parts. The first part treats of the poets chiefly before Dante; the second, of Dante and his circle. The preface is an interesting statement of the object of the book. The subject of metrical translation is thus here considered :—

"Much has been said, and in many respects justly, against the value of metrical translation. But I think it would be admitted that the tributary art might find a not illegitimate use in the case of poems which come down to us in such a form as these Italian ones. Struggling originally with corrupt dialect and imperfect expression, and hardly kept alive through centuries of neglect, they have reached that last and worst state in which the coup de grace has almost been dealt them by clumsy transcription and pedantic superstructure. At this stage the task of talking much more about them in any language is hardly to be entered upon; and a translation (involving, as it does, the necessity of taking many points without discussion) remains perhaps the most direct form of commentary. The life-blood of rhymed translation is this, that a good poem shall not be turned into a bad one. The only true motive for putting poetry into a fresh language must be to endow a fresh nation, as far as possible, with one more possession of beauty. Poetry not being an exact science, literality of rendering is altogether

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