may be righteous; but neither the necessity nor the righteousness tends to conciliate the parties against which the defiance is hurled. In the present case I venture to doubt the necessity, and to deprecate the cartel.
I have spoken my mind fully and freely, but I trust that your Grace will not think that I have done so unkindly. I lament and I resent the wrongs and the misfortunes of the Irish Church, and I feel how natural it is that, while she is under the influence of such feelings, the community, acting by its Synods, might be inclined to courses of action from which it would shrink in more peaceful and prosperous times. But it is the contemplation of this very temptation which has led me to submit the doubts and cautions which have presented themselves to the mind of a friendly bystander contemplating the scene from an English watch-tower.
I cannot help apprehending that the exasperation roused in the minds of members of the Irish Church, by its forcible and unjust disestablishment, may not unnaturally lead them to overlook the reflective advantage to themselves of identity with the still Established Church of England; and with regard to the question of the Formularies, to dwell upon the fact that the authoritative Prayer Books of the Scottish and the American Episcopal Churches are not identical with the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments established by law.
Having, therefore, discussed the advantages of identity, I must, before I conclude this letter, say a few words upon the apparent precedents in the other direction of the Scottish and American Prayer Books. I believe that I can show that the circumstances under which these variant Formularies were produced, were so different from those which at present interest the Irish Church, that the very fact of the existence of these differing books (on the value of which I offer no opinion) is one of the
