These preachers never progress; they eddy round and round. Sterility of
mind follows their ministry.
_January_ 20. 1833.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
When the Church at the Reformation ceased to be extra-national, it
unhappily became royal instead; its proper bearing is intermediate between
the crown and the people, with an inclination to the latter.
* * * * *
The present prospects of the Church weigh heavily on my soul. Oh! that the
words of a statesman-like philosophy could win their way through the
ignorant zealotry and sordid vulgarity of the leaders of the day!
_February_ 5. 1833.
UNION WITH IRELAND.
If any modification of the Union takes place, I trust it will be a total
divorce _a vinculo matrimonii_. I am sure we have lived a cat and dog life
of it. Let us have no silly saving of one crown and two legislatures; that
would be preserving all the mischiefs without any of the goods, if there
are any, of the union.
I am deliberately of opinion, that England, in all its institutions, has
received injury from its union with Ireland. My only difficulty is as to
the Protestants, to whom we owe protection. But I cannot forget that the
Protestants themselves have greatly aided in accelerating the present
horrible state of things, by using that as a remedy and a reward which
should have been to them an opportunity.
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