been able to establish Protestantism in Ireland, they must convince us at the same time, that it is most unreasonable, and contrary to the interests of the people and to a sound policy, to keep up a vast and expensive ecclesiastical establishment for the sake of so small a minority, and in opposition to the wishes of the great mass of the population". The Archbishop next quoted several authorities from Protestant writers condemnatory of the Anglican establishment, and among others, that of Lord Brougham, who, confirming his own views by those of the celebrated Edmund Burke, says: "I well remember a phrase used by one not a foe of Church Establishments--I mean Mr. Burke. 'Don't talk of its being a church! It is a wholesale robbery!'... I have, my lords, heard it called an anomaly, and I say that it is an anomaly of so gross a kind, that it outrages every principle of common sense, and every one endowed with common reason must feel that it is the most gross outrage to that common sense as it is also to justice. Such an establishment, kept up for such a purpose, kept up by such means, and upheld by such a system, is a thing wholly peculiar to Ireland, and could be tolerated nowhere else. That such a system should go on in the nineteenth century; that such a thing should go on while all the arts are in a forward and onward course, while all the sciences are progressing, while all morals and religion too--for, my lords, there never was more of religion and morality than is now presented in all parts of the country,--that this gross abuse, the most outrageous of all, should be allowed to continue, is really astonishing. It cannot be upheld, unless the tide of knowledge shall turn back, unless we return to the state in which things were a couple of centuries ago". After quoting several other authorities similar to that of Lord Brougham, the Archbishop called on his hearers to unite with him in calling for the abolition of the Establishment.