By MICHAEI< J. Br. W^'CARTHY

CATHOLIC IRELAND

AND

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND
A Contrast

Author Of
^rTESTS and people in IRELAND

far tie fiiii^n^ if a, CfUtgt. hr ^^^^/j^l

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE
Alfred E. Perkins Fund

CATHOLIC IRELAND

Michael J. F. McCarthy.

CATHOLIC IRELAND
AND
PROTESTANT SCOTLAND
A CONTRAST

BY

MICHAEL J. F. MCCARTHY
B.A., T.C.D.
BARRISTER-AT-LAW AUTHOR OF
'priests and people in IRELAND," ETC., ETC.

je&lnburgb ana 3ton&on
OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER
1905

PRINTED EY
TUENDULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH

PREFACE
The following address was delivered
in Central Hall, Edinburgh, on Sun
day, November 27th, 1904, to an
audience of twelve hundred men and
three ladies.
The meeting was one *' for men
only " ; but, just before the proceedings
began, a message was conveyed to the
chairman, the Rev. George Jackson,
that three ladies, who did not give
their names, but " who had read all
Mr M'^Carthy's books and were great
admirers of his," specially requested
the privilege of admission, which was
granted to them, and they seated
themselves at the end of the hall.
As this was my first visit to Scot-

6 PREFACE
land, may I be permitted to say that
I have never addressed a more sym
pathetic audience, or an audience for
whose intelligence I felt a higher
respect. I am deeply grateful to Miss Isabel
G. Chalmers, niece of the famous
Dr Thomas Chalmers — clarum ac
venerabile nomen all over Scotland —
on whose invitation I went to Edin
burgh, and who undertook all the
responsibilities connected with my
visit. I stayed with her at Murrayfield
House, and met, under her hospitable
roof, many distinguished men and
women of Edinburgh.
I also saw much of the city itself,
under her guidance ; and I can truly
say that the capital of Scotland, like
those of its inhabitants whom I was

PREFACE 7
so fortunate as to meet, more than
realised my very high expectations.
The combination of antiquity and
modernity to be seen in Edinburgh
cannot fail to arrest the attention of
even the most thoughtless wayfarer,
the present day efficiency and solid
prosperity of the city being no less
remarkable than those picturesque
sites whereon are built the monuments
of Scotland's ancient glory.
MICHAEL J. F. MXARTHY.
January 1905.

CATHOLIC IRELAND
In a society so constituted as that of
the British Isles, social customs, ideals
and enjoyments must depend largely
upon religious beliefs and practices.
This is more especially the case in
Scotland and Ireland where the
religion of each nation is written in
large characters over the face of the
country. I do not think it is so much
the case, perhaps, in England where
I have been residing for some time.
There, perhaps, religion has not
entered so intensely into the national
life, but nevertheless, in that country
also, things social and religious are
closely intermingled.
This is my first visit to Scotland ;

IO CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
and if I may be permitted to mention
so personal a matter, this is the first
occasion on which I have delivered
an address on the Sabbath Day. It
is well, perhaps, that this new depar
ture on my part should have taken
place in the capital of a nation famous
for its strict observance of the Sabbath.
A stranger within your gates, I feel
fortified by the atmosphere of sound
doctrine which I breathe in Edinburgh,
and I shall proceed straightway to
contribute one more mite of help
towards pulling the Irish ox out of the
pit in which it has wallowed so long.
Critics may cavil at my methods ;
but, in its humble way, my mission is
one of healing.
To you, Scots, I say, " Catholic
Ireland, too, is a daughter of Abraham
which hath a spirit of infirmity, is

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND ii
bowed together, and can in no wise
lift up herself." I ask no more than
that the proceedings of this Sabbath
afternoon may do something to hasten
the day when she may be freed from
her bonds and lift herself erect amongst
the nations. " And ought not this
woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound, lo, these
eight hundred years, be loosed from
this bond on the Sabbath day ? "
It is natural that Scotland should
be sympathetic towards Ireland ; be
cause, both peoples being of one race,
the history of the Scotsman, as well as
of the Irishman, is that of " a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief"
Ireland and Scotland are, in some
respects, like Siamese twins. Scotland
overlaps into Ireland, and Ireland
overlaps into Scotland. There is a

12 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
Scotch settlement in Ireland and there
is an Irish settlement in Scotland.
Ireland is more than leavened with
Scotchmen ; and its most prosperous
province, Ulster, is ruled by men who
are proud to own their consanguinity
with the Scot.
If I say much of Scotland by way
of comparison and contrast in this
lecture, it is in order that I may
found my inferences as to things un
known to you upon facts which must
be known to every school-boy in
Scotland. Yes, Ireland and Scotland are
sisters; but, if you were to search
the records of humanity, you could
not find a greater disparity in vigour,
a greater inequality of lot, between
two grafts on the same stock, than is
to be found at this present moment in

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 13
the relative conditions of the Catholic
Irishman and the Protestant Scot.
The Scotch plantation in Ireland,
for instance, may be said to rule
Ireland. And it occupies that great
position, not by the power of the
sword, nor by virtue of the favour
of those in high places, but by sheer
force of character and brain power,
coupled with unremitting industry,
unsullied integrity, and the active
practice of pure Christianity. It is
the Irish Scots, or the Scotch Irish,
if you will, who carry through all
Ireland's greatest commercial and
financial enterprises and control those
branches of manufacture in which
Ireland still excels, as for instance
shipbuilding and the linen industry.
It is they who give Ireland the lead,
not ostentatiously but none the less

14 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
effectively, in all that is solid and
practical, in everything conducive to
settled prosperity, to the maintenance
of law and order, and to the lasting
benefit of the country.
Let us now look at the other side
of the picture.
If you examine the position of the
Catholic Irish settlement in Scotland,
you will find, on the contrary, that its
social and commercial status is the
reverse of all that I have said of
the Protestant Scotch settlement in
Ireland. It is not necessary to go into
details calculated to wound the sus
ceptibilities of my own people. It is
enough to ask you and them to mark
the contrast, for I aim at nothing more
to-day than the awakening of thought
on this important subject.
Catholic Ireland may grumble at

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 15
the superiority of her sister, Protestant
Scotland, and may protest against the
injustice of destiny ; but there is One
above all — or, as the Scotch say,
there's Ane abune a' — who holds the
fate of nations as of individuals, in
the hollow of His immortal hand ;
and it behoves us, as mortal men, not
to intrude upon His great province,
but to consider calmly the cause of
our misfortune rather than to rail
peevishly at its continued existence.
These two sister-lands, Ireland and
Scotland, have one possession in
comr:.,on, one other relative with
whom each has had many a crow to
pluck, and that is their big brother
John Bull. Both sisters have received
a hustling from that big brother on
occasions, and certainly the punish
ment inflicted on Irish Molly has not

i6 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
been one whit harder than that meted
out to Scotch Peg. Both sisters are
interesting and pretty and noted for
the beauty of their national coun
tenances. But while Molly has wilted
under rough treatment. Peg has
waxed so strong and brave that John
Bull is now little more than a hen
pecked gudeman under the rule of his
sister Peg.
It was a Scotsman, the famous
Doctor Arbuthnot, physician to Queen
Anne, in whose reign the parlia
mentary union between Scotland and
England was effected, who first
illustrated by metaphor the relation
ship between John Bull and his sister
Peg, and thus humorously depicted
the grievances of his native land:- —
"John had a sister," wrote
Arbuthnot, " a poor girl that had

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND i;
been starved at nurse ; anybody
would have guessed Miss to have
been bred up under the influence of a
cruel stepdame, and John to be the
fondling of a tender mother. John
looked ruddy and plump with a pair of
cheeks like a trumpeter ; Miss looked
pale and wane, as if she had the green
sickness ; and no wonder, for John was
the darling, he had all the good bits,
was crammed with good pullet, chicken,
pig, goose, and capon, while Miss had
only a little oatmeal and water, or a
dry crust without butter. Master John
lay in the best apartment, with his bed
chamber towards the south sun. Miss
Peggy lodged in a garret exposed to
the north wind which shrivelled her
countenance ; however, this usage,
though it stunted the girl in her
growth, gave her a hardy constitution ;

i8 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
she had life and spirit in abundance,
and knew when she was ill used."
In all that the shrewd and witty
Scotchman had to say about social and
political grievances, he never once
forgot the fundamental differences of
religious belief; and, pursuing his
humorous vein, he goes on to refer
to the Roman Church, Martin Luther
and John Calvin, under the fanciful
names of " Lord Peter," " Martin ''
and "Jack " respectively. I cannot help
regarding " Lord Peter " as a misnomer
for the Roman Church, inasmuch
as Saint Peter never had anything
to do with that particular institution,
" What think you of my sister Peg,"
says John, " that faints at the sound of
an organ, and yet will dance and frisk
at the noise of a bagpipe ? "
" What's that to you ? " quoth Peg,

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 19
" everybody's to choose their own
music ! "
" Then Peg had taken a fancy not
to say her Paternoster," adds Arbuth
not, " which made people imagine
strange things of her. ... Of the
three brothers that have made such
a clutter in the world, Lord Peter,
Martin and Jack, Jack had of late
Peg's inclinations. Lord Peter she
detested, nor did Martin stand much
better in her good graces, but Jack had
found the way to her heart."
It is the fashion amongst degener
ates of to-day to decry Calvinism as a
synonym for everything that is gloomy
and morose. I am by no means an
apostle of gloominess ; but he laughs
best who laughs last ; and I find that
the gloomiest Calvinist is fresher and
more mirthful at the end of life's race

20 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
than is the most light-hearted pleasure-
seeker and time-server. And I believe
that it is to her fondness for " Jack,"
that is to say, for Calvin, the serious
and high - minded evangelist, that
Scotch Peg owes most, if not all, of
her greatness, her " life and spirit in
abundance," and her knowledge of
" when she is ill used."
And in like manner I believe that it
is to her excessive affection for " Lord
Peter," that is to say, the corrupted
form of the Christian religion adopted
by the dissolute Romans, that Irish
Molly may attribute most, if not all, her
sorrow at the opening of the twentieth
century, her want of " life and spirit
in abundance," her ignorance of " when
she is ill used," and her ignorance of-
those who are her real persecutors.
What was Calvin's gospel.'* You

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 21
will find that portion of it with which
I am now concerned in a single
sentence in the preface to his " Insti
tutes of the Christian Religion,"
addressed especially to Francis, King
of the French.
"He moreover deceives himself,"
wrote Calvin from Basle on the ist
of August 1536, "who anticipates
long prosperity to any kingdom which
is not ruled by the sceptre of God, that
is, by His divine word."
The word of God is the sceptre of
God, and it is under the rule of that
sceptre only that a kingdom may
anticipate long prosperity. Has not
experience proved that statement to be
sound doctrine and the soundest of all
politics ? Give the word of God to
the people of any kingdom, rear them
upon its teachings, which are at once

22 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
practical and sublime, and you ensure
for the people of that kingdom a
" long prosperity."
And upon what has a Scotsman
been reared if not upon his Bible ? I
have had business dealings with a great
number of Scotsmen. In Dublin, for
instance, my tailor was a Scot, my
bookseller was a Scot, my picture-
framer and print-seller was a Scot, my
coal merchant was a Scot, my photo
grapher was a Scot, the manager of
the most prosperous paper in Ireland
{for which I occasionally wrote articles)
was a Scot. I always have a feeling
of kinship with a Scotsman. In my
time I have occasionally met a Scots
man who knew some one particular
thing better than his own immediate
business. What was that one other
thing? In my experience it was the

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 23
Bible, not commentaries on the Bible,
but the Bible, pure and simple.
How different it is with a Catholic
Irishman ! To him the Bible is less
known, perhaps, than any of the
celebrated books that have been pre
served for the information of humanity.
A Catholic Irishman may be ac
quainted with Shakespeare, Rabelais,
Omar Khayam, Cervantes, Tolstoy,
or Tennyson, and he may know
something of all the Toms, Jacks,
Bills, and Harrys, and Marys, the popu
larity-hunters who compose literary
anodynes at the present day. But,
on one subject he is more ignorant
than the Don Cossack, and that sub
ject is the contents of the Bible. The
Catholic portion of the kingdom of
Ireland has not been ruled by the
"sceptre of God, that is, by His divine

24 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
word " ; neither has it enjoyed, nor
does it seem at present likely to enjoy,
" a long prosperity."
And to whom are we to attribute
this bitter lacuna, this fatal want in
Irish life? To whom but to that
class of men so vehemently denounced
by Calvin in that same prefatory
address to King Francis, written nearly
four centuries ago.
" Look now to our adversaries,"
writes Calvin, " I mean the priesthood
at whose beck and pleasure others
ply their enmity against us, and con
sider with me for a little by what
zeal they are actuated. The true
religion," says Calvin, " which is de
livered in the scriptures, and which
all ought to hold, they (the priests)
readily permit both themselves and
others to be ignorant of, to neglect

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 25
and despise : and they deem it of
little moment what each man believes
concerning God and Christ, or dis
believes, provided he submits to the
judgment of the Church with what
they call implicit faith ; nor are they
greatly concerned though they should
see the glory of God dishonoured
by open blasphemies, provided not
a finger is raised against the primacy
of the Apostolic See and the authority
of holy mother Church."
That is a literal description of the
state of things in Catholic Ireland at
this moment. The priests fighting
for "the Church," as they call them
selves, in other words fighting for
their own corner ; Christ forgotten or
misunderstood ; blasphemy prevalent ;
while implicit faith in the judgment
of " the Church " and in the primacy

26 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
of the Apostolic See constitutes the
only religion of the unthinking people.^
"Why then," continues Calvin, "do
they war for the mass, purgatory, pil
grimage, and similar follies, with such
fierceness and acerbity, that though
they cannot prove one of them from
the word of God, they deny godliness
can be safe without faith in these
things — faith drawn out, if I may so
express it, to its utmost stretch ? "
And then Calvin answers the ques
tion for us in his own plain manner
of speaking, calling a spade a spade,
and actually making use of that ob
jectionable word "belly" — that word
found so often in the Bible, used by
Job, Matthew, Mark, John and Paul,
a word which those criterions of style,
' For numerous illustrations of this, see Gallow-
glass, or Life in the Land of the Priests.

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 27
those glasses of fashion and moulds
of form, those priest-supporting news
papers who criticise me, would not
print in their cultured columns (save
perhaps, as an advertisement) under
any consideration. I hope you will
not be shocked by the strength of
Calvin's language. You assuredly will
not, if you are christian gentlemen
after the manner of Saint Paul.
"Why," answers Calvin, "just
because their belly is their god and
their kitchen their religion ; and they
believe that if these were away, they
would not only not be Christians, but
not even men."
Calvin means that if you took "the
mass, purgatory, pilgrimage and similar
follies," away from the priests they
would not be able to exist either as
Christians or as men.

28 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
" For although some wallow in
luxury and others feed on slender
crusts," continues Calvin, "still they
all live by the same pot, which, with
out that fuel, might not only cool, but
altogether freeze."
And Calvin thus winds up his
indictment of the priests : "He
accordingly who is most anxious
about his stomach proves the fiercest
champion of his faith. In short, the
object on which all to a man are bent
is to keep their kingdom safe, or their
belly filled, not one gives even the
smallest sign of sincere zeal."
Although written nearly four
centuries ago, that passage is an
exact description of the priests in
Catholic Ireland at the present day,
with the exception, perhaps, of one
sentence. Calvin says of his adver-

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 29
saries, the priests of that day, that
"some wallowed in luxury, while
others fed on slender crusts." Now
the difference is that none of the
priests with whom I have to do "feed
on slender crusts." They all live in
a condition of repletion ; their pot is
full ; their pot is always boiling.
Calvin's differentiation may have been
true of the French priests of his own
day, but it does not apply to the Irish
priests. It was also true of the British
priests, English and Scotch, who
flourished in the days of your own
John Knox. Was not John Knox
persecuted by the priests here in
Scotland ? Was he not carried off to
the French galleys ? Did not the
Queen Regent of Scotland side with
the priests of that day ? Was not John

30 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
Knox outlawed? But did he not
triumph ultimately, did not the word
of God win the victory, and has not
truth been ever since triumphant in
Scotland, and is not that the explana
tion of her " long prosperity ? "
" I will defend the Kirk of Rome,"
said Mary, Queen of Scots, " for
it is, I think, the true Kirk of
God." " Your will, Madam, is no reason,"
replied John Knox, "neither doth it
make that Roman harlot to be the
true and immaculate spouse of Christ.
I offer myself. Madam, to prove that
the Church of the Jews which crucified
Christ Jesus was not so far degenerate
from the ordinances and statutes given
it of God, as the Church of Rome is
declined, and more than five hundred
years hath declined, from the purity of

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 31
that religion which the Apostles taught
and planted."
I trust that young Scotsmen will
not be cajoled into forgetting John
Knox. And the adversaries of John Calvin
and John Knox were also the adver
saries of John Wesley. Yes, every
man that ever struggled to get the
people back to Christ, and thereby
ensure for them "a long prosperity,"
had to bear the denunciations of the
local priests of their time. Just as
Knox and Calvin were persecuted,
just as Christ Himself was persecuted
by the Jewish priests, so John Wesley
had to brave the terrors of the organ
ised Anglican priesthood, when he
sought to save England from the
domination of vice.
" Every Sunday," writes his brother
c

32 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
Charles, " damnation is denounced
against all who hear us."
Damnation is preached this very
day against those who read my books
in Ireland ; penances are being im
posed in the confessionals on those
who read them ; servants have been
known to burn them in the houses
of their employers ; public institutions
are denounced in the priests' press
for admitting them to their libraries.
It was only on the 5th of the present
month that the principal and most
virulent of the priests' papers in
Ireland contained the following para
graph : " Who compose the Institute
of Bankers in Ireland ? We have
before us the printed catalogue of its
Library. The collection is not a very
extensive one, but, small as it is, it is
significant to note that two of the

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 33
literary works of the man M'^Carthy
find a place in it."
And the priests' paper then pro
ceeds to denounce by name three
Roman Catholic members of the Com
mittee and the librarian of the Institute
of Bankers for their offence against the
Apostolic See and Holy Mother Church
in placing my books in their library.
Thus they rave and fume against
books which are written with as little
animus as " The Institutes " of Calvin,
and which contain nothing but truth ;
but they make no attempt at a reply
.to the censures which the facts re
corded in those books pass upon their
own course of conduct in Ireland. As
long as such men rule Catholic Ireland,
that unhappy land can never enter
upon a career of "long prosperity."
Let us apply a fundamental test to

34 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
the results of priestly rule in Ireland,
social and religious. Locomotion has
now reached such a pitch of cheap
ness and perfection that population
gravitates very quickly towards any
desirable centre ; and, therefore, in
civilised lands, a steadily maintained
increase in population is invariably
synonymous with increasing pros
perity. Applying this simple test to
the case of Scotland, it will be seen
that this land of John Knox, and also,
it may be said, of John Calvin, has
trebled its population during the nine
teenth century.
In 1801 the population of Scotland
was only 1,608,420; in 1841 it was
2,620,184 ; and in 1901 its population
was 4,472,103. The rise was not a
spasmodic one, but a steady increase
over the entire century, every de-

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 35
cennial period showing a uniform
excess over the preceding period.
Apply the same test to Catholic
Ireland, the land of " Lord Peter " and
his Italian priests, the land which has
never had a religious evolution, and
where the Institute of Bankers is held
up to public odium for reading the
writings of " the man M'^Carthy " — an
Irishman struggling to do good — and
what do we find ?
In 1 841 the population of Ireland
was 8,175,124, or nearly treble the
population of Scotland in that year,
but in 1901 it had fallen to 4,458,775 ;
and Ireland to-day contains over
200,000 less people than Scotland !
There is the difference between
Christ and no Christ ; or, if you will,
the difference between Diana and
Christ. " But rather seek ye the

36 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
kingdom of God ; and all these things
shall be added unto you." It is to
Christ and the Bible that modern
Europe owes all its progress, that is to
say, whatever of " all these things "
has been added unto it. In propor
tion as it has been freed from the
Roman Diana, it has entered upon its
career of " long prosperity."
I defy you to give any other
sustainable explanation of the differ
ence in the fates of Catholic Ireland
and Protestant Scotland. Historians,
politicians, writers and public speakers
of every description have tried to
shirk it, but they all know in their
heart of hearts as well as I do,
why Catholic Ireland remains a gan
grene in the living body-politic of the
United Kingdom.
People ask me. How much of

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 37
Ireland's misery is racial ? I answer.
None of it. I ask you to notice that
portion of the United Kingdom which
has been called " the Celtic fringe."
Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, Manxland and Corn
wall are the Celtic districts of the
United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
Manxland and Cornwall are Celtic
and Protestant, and they are pros
perous. Southern Ireland is Celtic
and Catholic and it is not pros
perous. Is it not clear, therefore, that it is
to religion and not to race that
Southern Ireland must trace her un
happy condition ? Do we not also
see that the same religion produces
the same consequence amongst races
who are not akin to the Irish, as for

38 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
instance in Poland, in Italy, in Spain
and Portugal.
It is also the fashion, amongst the
apologists for the priests, to ascribe
Ireland's' misfortunes entirely to per
secution by the English. Well, in my
opinion, England's injustice to Catholic
Ireland has not been greater than
England's injustice to Scotland. It is
Catholic Ireland's injustice to itself that
has done and is doing the mischief.
Ireland is more fertile than Scotland ;
it is larger ; the area of cultivable
land is greater ; it is less moun
tainous and more workable. And in
the latter part of the eighteenth century,
when Catholic and Protestant were
working together under the control of
an exclusively Protestant administra
tion, Ireland, with a population three
times as great as Scotland's, was doing

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 39
so well that it threatened the supremacy
of England in the United Kingdom.
What has CathoHc Ireland done
since the priest was emancipated in
1829? While Protestant Ireland,
Presbyterian Ireland, has been work
ing and thriving under difficulties,
Catholic Ireland has had a colossal
famine and several murderous agita
tions, and it has been proving to the
world the truth of Mr Lecky's judg
ment on the Roman Catholic religion.
That is nearly all it has done since the
Priests' Emancipation Act of 1829.
" The Catholic Religion," says Mr
Lecky, " is exceedingly unfavourable
to independence of character and to
independence of intellect, which are
the first conditions of national pro
gress. It softens, but it also weakens
the character, and it produces habits

40 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
of thought and life not favourable
to industrial activity, and extremely
opposed to political freedom."
Is not that well exemplified in
Catholic Ireland where at this moment
there is to be found neither industrial
activity nor political freedom ? There
is as much political serfdom to-day,
under the nominal leadership of Mr
John Redmond, as there was in the
days of Castlereagh, but it is of a
different description.
"No class of men," continues Mr
Lecky, " by their principles and their
modes of life and of thought are less
fitted for political leadership than
Catholic priests. It is scarcely possible
that they should be sincerely attached
to tolerance, intellectual activity, or
political freedom."
And he adds, "It may indeed be

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 41
safely asserted that, under the con
ditions of modern life, no country will
ever play a great and honourable part
in the world, if the policy of its rulers,
or the higher education of its people,
is subject to the control of the Catholic
priesthood." That is the condition of Catholic
Ireland, social and religious, at this
moment ; the policy of its rulers and
the higher education of its people are
subject to the control of the Catholic
priesthood, and the country can never
play a great and honourable part in
the world, while that lasts.
Let us endeavour to gather some
idea of the strength of the sacerdotal
caste in Ireland by contrast with the
number of clergymen in Scotland. You
have no sacerdotal caste here, happily
for yourselves. Your ministers are

42 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
simply ordained elders set apart especi
ally for Church work, but laying claim
to no sacred character or miraculous
power whatever. While the minister
is doing Church work during the six
working days, the other ordained
elders are pursuing their ordinary
avocations. You have no monks, no
nuns, or female priests, as some one
has called them.
I shall take the Census Returns of
1 901 as the basis of my figures ; but,
as I have stated in Priests and People,
these figures are often inadequate in
regard to Ireland, and numbers who
should be set down as belonging to the
priestly caste are classified under secular
headings. In Scotland in 1901 with a popula
tion of 4,472,103, you had 8137
persons, male and female, set down

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 43
as belonging to the clerical pro
fession. In Ireland, in the same year, with
a population of only 4,458,775, we
had 18,407 persons, male and female,
set down as belonging to the clerical
profession !
In Scotland there was included in
the total of 8137, the unordained
church and cemetery employees to the
number of 11 68, leaving a net total
of 6969. In Ireland we have to
deduct 880 members of the same
class, leaving a net total of 17,527.
Now of the 6969 members of the
religious profession in Scotland in 1901,
1828 were ministers of the Established
Church, 1983 were ministers of the
United Free Church, 686 were
ministers of other religious denomina
tions, and 380 were episcopalian clergy-

44 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
men ; and this total of clergymen
provides for 4,172,103 Scottish people.
But, to provide for the small Roman
Catholic community of about 300,000
people which exists in Scotland, a
priestly establishment of 2 arch
bishops, 4 bishops, 492 priests, 8
monks (admitted in the Census) and
398 nuns (admitted in the Census)
were found necessary at the close of
the year 1902.
In Ireland, out of the net total of
17,527 members of the clerical pro
fession, and after further deducting
425 unordained scripture -readers and
itinerant preachers, 14,376 were Roman
Catholic priests, monks and nuns
(admitted in the Census) ; and there
were only 2726 ministers of all other
denominations. The 14,376 priests,
monks and nuns provided for a

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 45
Catholic population of only 3,308,661.
The 2726 ministers provided for a
Protestant population of 1,150,114.
In Ireland we had 4 archbishops,
24 bishops, 14,376 priests, monks,
and nuns, providing for 3,308,661
people in 1901 ; in Scotland you
had 4877 ministers providing for
4,172,103 people in the same year. If
your religious establishment were on
the same scale as ours you should
have had 18,127 archbishops, bishops,
priests, monks and nuns, whereas you
had no archbishops, no bishops, and
only 4877 plain ministers at work
amongst you. If our religious
establishment were on the same scale
as yours we should only have had
3867 ministers, instead of having had
14,376 archbishops, bishops, priests,
monks and nuns.

46 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
And though our population is de
creasing in Ireland, our army of priests,
monks and nuns is increasing. Thus
in 1 86 1, when tlie Catholic population
of Ireland was 4,505,265, we had only
5955 priests, monks and nuns; but in
1 90 1, when our Catholic population
was reduced to 3,308,661, we had, as
we have seen, 14,145 !
You, residents in Edinburgh, cannot
easily realise the barrenness of social
and religious life in Catholic Ireland.
A London weekly paper, The Outlook
of the 19th inst., reviewing my new
book Gallowglass, thus closed a long
article on the subject: "What a
gloomy picture of a numerous and
badly educated priesthood and hier
archy busying themselves in the
material side of their office, confusing
means with ends, thinking the shell of

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 47
greater moment than the kernel, spend
ing all their energies in the building of
churches and orphanages with hardly
a thought of the higher things of the
mind ! "
You cannot realise the debasement
of mind which follows in the trail of
the priest. All classes, high and low,
are infected by it. I happened to be
travelling recently from Dublin to
Bray, and, in the carriage with me,
were a Roman Catholic bishop and a
Roman Catholic lawyer, a King's
Counsellor. The parasitical behaviour
of that lawyer to that bishop was as
pathetic an example of human de
gradation as I ever witnessed. The
hypocrisy of him, the meanness of him,
the cowardice of him !
Poor man, his pot was not very full.
And, on the other hand, the self-

48 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
complacency and self-sufficiency of the
priest, whose pot was brimming over.
For it is true in Ireland to-day, as it
was in Scotland in John Knox's day,
that the priests have " stores of all
good things," and it is also true, as
Knox said of Scotland, that " no
honest man is enriched thereby the
value of a groat. "
There were the master and the
slave, the bishop and the barrister, the
great man and the toady.
" That game is catching a hold o'
me,' your lordship," said the King's
Counsellor in the whining tone of a
man confessing a grievous sin. I
listened in surprise. The bishop
looked wise and made no comment.
Then the King's Counsellor, in a
whining brogue, began to excuse
himself: "Why then, me lord, that

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 49
little game is catching a hold on me.
'Tis indeed, me lord ; I'm beginning
to notice that I'm getting a kind of a
longing for it."
And he whined as if he wanted
absolution for some heinous offence ;
and he went on to describe in accents
of melancholy hypocrisy, the creeping
kind of a feel that came over him
when he thought about the little
game. What do you think it was,
this game over his fondness for which
he was shedding crocodile tears in the
presence of the priest ? It was nothing
more or less than the game of golf,
which, poor man, he had recently
begun to learn !
It was only quite recently a Catholic
doctor, living in Merrion Square, said
to me that the priests kept up a reign
of terror over the professional men.

50 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
but especially over the doctors, all
the Catholic hospitals, and the only
Catholic medical school, being in the
hands of nuns and priests.
There is no recreation for the mind
in Catholic Ireland. If a priest should
start anything in the nature of a
mission like, let us say, this ToUcross
Hall, its influence would be degenerat
ing and not at all elevating for those
who should attend it. If a layman, or
a body of laymen, attempted to start
a society for their own improvement,
free from the sickening aroma of
priestcraft, the priests would bring all
their powers of destruction to bear
upon it, and they would not rest easy
till it withered from the face of the
earth. All the Catholic schools are in
the hands of the priests. Out

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 51
of 5944 Catholic state - supported,
national schools, 5,770 are under
priest-managers and only 174 under
lay-managers. There are five priest-
managed, state-subsidised training-
colleges for teachers drawing ^30,426
a year as against .1^13,180 paid to the
non - sectarian Government college.
But you will find all these interesting
figures in my books Priests and People
and Rome in Ireland, and you will find
a still more detailed account of the
practical working of the priest's auto
cracy in my new book Gallowglass.
Not only are the laity excluded
from all voice in educational matters ;
but also, the hospitals being entirely in
the priests' hands, there is scarcely
any scope for private initiative in
works of charity amongst Catholics
in Ireland ; and social life is thus

52 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
robbed of one of its most beneficent
charms. My allotted time for the delivery of
this address is now drawing to a close,
and there is little more left for me to
do than to call your minds back to
those first principles of Christianity
to which Scotland, in my opinion, is
indebted for all her progress. Observe
what Catholic Ireland suffers, and has
suffered through her ignorance of
them, or rather through her desertion
of them ; for before the commence
ment of the sway of the Roman priests
in Ireland, Ireland was Christian !
Patrick lived and died in the fifth
century, and Phocas_did not confer the
primacy of the West upon the Bishop
of Rome until the beginning of the
seventh century.
Black and white, night and day.

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 55
light and darkness, good and evil, are
not more antagonistic, one to another,
than are Christianity and priestcraft.
The sacrificing priest and his ritual are
essentially pagan institutions, which
Christ openly condemned — as pagan
as the religion of the druids which
Patrick had to fight against — and
which Christ died upon the cross in
order to abolish.
Did He not scourge the traffickers
in sacrifices out of the temple ? Yes ;
he lifted His hand in anger and smote
them. What an awful thought !
"And Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
and found in the temple those that
sold oxen and sheep and doves, and
the changers of money sitting ; and
when he had made a scourge of small
cords, he drove them all out of the
temple, and the sheep and the oxen ;

54 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
and poured out the changers' money
and overthrew the tables."
Never did He so display His anger
as to those engaged in the trade of
priestcraft. And you must remember
Paul's encounter with the Roman priest
of Jupiter at Lystra : " And they called
Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius,
because he was the chief speaker.
Then the priest of Jupiter, which was
before their city, brought oxen and
garlands to the gates and would have
done sacrifice with the people. Which
when the apostles Barnabas and Paul
heard of, they rent their clothes and
ran in amongst the people, crying out
and saying : Sirs, why do ye these
things ? "
The apostles rent their clothes, so
repulsive to them was the priest's
odious trade of sacrifice !

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 55
And you remember how Christ said
of the priests that they "profaned"
the Sabbath! It is a text not often
preached upon ; but it is one of the
most remarkable sayings in the New
Testament, "The priests profane the
Sabbath and are blameless," while
people who do good on the Sabbath
day are censured.
Oh, I thank God to-day that I find
myself in a land which has cut itself
free from priestcraft, and which has
taken its stand with Christ and with
Paul, now for nearly four centuries.
Would that my own native land were
so blessed !
Scotsmen, be on your guard against
priestcraft, as you love Christ, and
as you love Scotland. Save your
young people from contact with such
an infection with all its insinuating

56 CATHOLIC IRELAND AND
ritualism, its oxen and its garlands
and its money-changers. Continue to
live up to the ideals of John Knox, and
thereby to give a light and a lead to
the British Isles.
These are indeed degenerate times,
characterised by desertion of principles,
lack of earnestness, and eagerness to
compromise with wickedness. Hold
fast by the old truths, and, above all,
do nothing which may help or increase
the benighting influence of priestcraft
amongst your own fellow-Gaels in
Ireland. Let not your voice be raised, or
your vote ever given, on behalf of
any Irish measure, the result of which
would be to place more power in the
hands of the priests in that country.
You enjoy peace yourselves ; see to
it that Ireland too shall at length

PROTESTANT SCOTLAND 57
know peace, and from the same
source as your own country has ob
tained it.
I speak to you in your prosperity,
do not say that you will not hear.
Mark the perfect man and behold
the upright, for the end of that man
is peace. Do something to give Ireland
the peace of the gospel, that peace
which He meant when He said :
" Peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you. Not as the world
giveth, give I unto you. Let not
your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid."

New Work by Michael J. F. McCarthy.
GALLOWGLASS:
Or, Life in the Land of the Priests.
Illustrated. 6s.
The Atkeneeum of December 17, 1904, in a long review of
"Gallowglass," says: — "Mr McCarthy paints for us the sordid
and hopeless life of the lower classes in the south-east of Ireland,
in the 'eighties of the last century, when crime stalked abroad un
punished, and religion was employed in screening and condoning
rather than suppressing vice. ... Mr McCarthy's picture of the
lower-class Catholics is as diflferent from English life as if he
described a Basque or a Spanish town ; and yet he knows it so
intuitively that we assume he was born and brought up in such an
atmosphere, and that his novel is but a reproduction of what he
has seen and suffered. ... In other respects this book shows a
considerable advance on Mr McCarthy's earlier work."

Previous Works by Michael J. F. McCarthy.
Five Years in Ireland. Tenth Edition.
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"Broad, independent, and fearless." — Lord Rosebery.
Priests and People. Twenty-first Thousand.
Illustrated. 7s. 6d.
Innumerable sermons have been preached and lectures
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ICingdom. Rome in Ireland. Collected Addresses. By
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By thb Rev. J. WOOD BROWN, M.A.
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" The Scots Worthies!'
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