I say that Mr. Gladstone’s measure, introduced when and how it was, and with its double purport, involved these conclusions, because if the mere existence of an “alien Church” justifies the severance of the ties between authority and religion, and the plunder of its revenues for purposes other than that for which they were created, then the same reasoning would not only justify the abolition of an alien and the substitution of a native government, but also a refusal to contribute any revenue to the deposed government at all. There might be occasions demanding such a course. An oppressive Church, a tyrannical government, might well be swept away by a statesman with ears to hear the cries of impatience and eyes to see the ravages of injustice--a true statesman who, as Disraeli said in 1844, would accomplish by statute and conciliation what revolutions necessitate by force. But this was not one of them. The English Church itself was not practically resented, however its historical existence might be made to rankle in common with the other historical anomalies in Ireland, including its connection with England. The Church itself had been bettered, and might be still more improved. It was alive with opportunities. The Catholics and the Dissenters might, apart from the Establishment, which stood for British authority, be set upon a complete equality, and helped towards usefulness in many directions. The Church itself had proved a valuable educational centre. The Roman clergy called, not for its extinction, but for its disendowment; and rather because they could not bear to think that it was there at all, just as they cannot bear to think that it exists in England, than because they wanted the revenues or suffered under the rebuffs or rivalry of an English Church. It was an argument, as Disraeli put it, that might be paralleled if all those Irish gentlemen who had small estates, but frequented the same society, were to say that their brethren of large estates should surrender their revenues to the State; or if the unendowed hospitals of London were to exact the deprival of the endowments enjoyed by St. Bartholomew’s, St. Thomas’s, and Guy’s, not with the object of themselves sharing them, but out of wanton envy. Disraeli delivered three main speeches of great power, interest, and length on this subject. I shall not quote them in words, but shall only endeavour to present their pith. As regards the _Disestablishment_.