In this way all the evils which I have endeavoured to point out in the preceding part of this letter, would be incurred, with the additional grievance of a colour of subterfuge being spread over the process sufficient to exacerbate feelings already sufficiently irritated. If, on the contrary, it were maintained that these parasitical additions, however valuable within their own limits, were not to be reckoned as possessing an authority equivalent to that of the original documents, the door will be opened to an amount of misunderstanding and of bewilderment—if not, possibly, of equivocation — which would require the gifts of a Sanchez or an Escobar, rather than of any straightforward English or Irish clergyman to comprehend and harmonise. In either case the Church in England would be excused if it paused to consider how far these interpretations, upon which it had not been consulted, would affect its intimate union with the Irish Church.
There are many other considerations bearing upon the question on which I might dilate; but I forbear, in the belief that I have given sufficient reasons for the conclusion that the happiest and safest result at which the Committee can arrive will be to report that, upon a broad and comprehensive review of the whole affair, it recommends that the Irish Church should rest content with those Formularies which regulate the devotions and guide the belief of that great Church, of which it has been, is, and intends to remain, bone of bone and flesh of flesh.
I have the honour to remain,
My dear Lord Primate,
Yours most respectfully,
A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
