Here I must digress for a moment to refer to the position of the Irish Church.  By the Act of Union it had been provided that the Churches of England and Ireland as then by law established should be united, and that the continuation and preservation of the United Church should be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental part of the Union; and at the time of the agitation for Catholic emancipation the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland solemnly declared that their Church would never attempt to destroy the Protestant Establishment.  This is interesting as showing how futile are the attempts of one generation to bind posterity by legislation; and how foolish it is to expect that men will regard themselves as bound by promises made by their ancestors. (The same remark may be made with reference to the promises now being made by Nationalists as to the Home Rule Bill.) The general provisions of the Disestablishment Act were simple.  Existing clergy were secured in their incomes for life; the disestablished Church was allowed to claim all churches then in actual use, and to purchase rectory houses and glebes at a valuation; and a sum of L500,000 was given to the Church in lieu of all private endowments.  Everything else—­even endowments given by private persons a few years before the Act was passed—­was swept away.  The members of the Church showed a liberality which their opponents never anticipated.  They bought the glebes, continued to pay their clergy by voluntary assessments, and collected a large sum of money towards a future endowment.  Nationalist writers now state that the Act left the Irish Church with an income adequate to its needs and merely applied the surplus revenues to other purposes; and hint that the capital sum now possessed by the Church really came from the State, and that therefore the future Home Rule Government can deal with it as they please.  The alarm felt by Irish Churchmen at the prospect can be understood.

The other Fenian attempt in England which has historical importance was of a different kind.  Two Fenian prisoners were being conveyed in a prison van at Manchester.  Their friends tried to rescue them by force; and in the attempt killed the officer in charge.  For this crime, three of them—­Allen, Larkin and O’Brien—­were tried, convicted and hanged in November 1867.  These were the “Manchester Martyrs,” in honour of whose unflinching fidelity to faith and country (to quote the words of Archbishop Croke) so many memorial crosses have been erected, and solemn demonstrations are held every year to this day.  At the unveiling of the memorial cross at Limerick the orator said:  “Allen, Larkin and O’Brien died as truly for the cause of Irish Nationality as did any of the heroes of Irish history.  The same cause nerved the arms of the brave men of ’98, of ’48, of ’65 and ’67.  For the cause that had lived so long they would not take half measures—­nothing else would satisfy them than the full measure of Nationality for which they and their forefathers had fought.”