The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

IRELAND. 489lars,—a sum disasti'ously absorbed in the payment of cardinalostentation, in purveying to the pomps of a scandalous court,or in supplying brandy to Austrian brutality.'"* In pojiislicountries generally one-third of the year is spent in worshippingdead men and dead women ;the people are withdrawnfrom their labours, and taught to consume their substanceand their health in riot and drunkenness. The clergy,exempt from war and other civic duties, have abundance ofleisure to carry on intrigues and hatch plots. They oppressthe poor, fleece the rich, and drive away trade. -f-Vastquantities of gold and silver are locked up in the cathedrals,being employed to adorn images, which might otherwise circulatefreely in trade ; and in every parish there is an asylumor sanctuary, where robbers, murderers, and all sortsof criminals, are defended against the laws. To this, in nosmall degree, is owing the blood with which popish countriesare defiled.There is only one other country to which we shall advert.Its condition isso well known that we simply name it,— Ireland.Its natural riches,—its mineral wealth,—its amenityof climate,—its vast capabilities for commerce,—are all wellknown ; and yet Ireland is a name of woe among the nations,and its wretchedness has clouded the glories of the Britishempire.grow sideThere, ignorance and Popery, idleness and crime,by side, and draw each other up to a marvellousheight. In their shade raven all manner of unclean beasts.Rebellion roars from its cave, murder howls for blood, perjurymocks justice, and faction defies law ; while hordes ofits teeming population annually leave its shores in nakednessand hunger, to lurk in the fever-haunted dens of ourgreat cities,or to be cast upon the frozen shores of Canada.* Gavazzi, Thirteenth Oration.t The writer was informed in Brussels, by an intelligent English gentlemanlong resident there, that the priesthood of Belgium were the swornfoes of free trade, fearing that with it might come in protestant books.Every port in a popish country has a priest astride it.