The Irish Race in the Past and the PresentThébaud, Augustus J.
History
The Irish Race in the Past and the Present
Thébaud, Augustus J.
Ireland -- History
It looks as though we had lost sight of the interesting question
proposed at the outset, and of which so far not a word has been
said--whether Protestantism spread so readily in the North,
because it found that region peopled with races better disposed
for civilization, if not taking the lead already in that respect,
and men ardent for freedom and impatient of servitude of any
kind. We stated that the solution of this question, particularly
in the case of England, is clear, and consequently not to be
discarded on account of previous solutions of the same question,
which have scarcely met with any attention from the adverse side.
One thing certainly undeniable is, that neither in its origin,
nor even in its consequences, can Protestantism be esteemed as
in any sense the promoter of freedom and civilization in the
British islands.
It has always struck us as strange that sensible men, acquainted
with history, could maintain that an aspiration after freedom
and a higher civilization gave to Germany and England a leaning
toward Protestantism. We can understand how the state of Europe
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may give a coloring
to the statement of a partisan writer, desirous of explaining in
these modern times the greater amount of freedom really enjoyed
in England, and the advanced material prosperity visible
generally among Protestant Northern nations. So much we can
understand. But, to make Protestantism the origin of freedom and
civilization, and ascribe to it what happened subsequent to its
spread indeed, but what really resulted from very different
causes, passes our comprehension.
As far as freedom goes, the most superficial reader must know
that there was not a particle of it left in England when
Protestantism commenced; and it were easy to show that there was
less of it in Germany than in Italy, Spain, and even France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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