their faith. In this enquiry I was mainly influenced by the conviction that loss of faith or indifference to religion would be the most terrible of all calamities to Irish Catholics; that the necessary result of that loss of faith or that indifference to religion would be fatal to their material progress, would disastrously interfere with the proper performance of their duties as citizens, and would be certain to turn the public opinion of America against them. I have devoted a considerable portion of the following pages to this vital subject, and given rather an elaborate sketch of the history and progress of the Catholic Church of America—of that institution by which, humanly speaking, the education, the character, the conduct, the material welfare and social position of the Irish and their descendants are and must be profoundly influenced. And, indeed, in giving a history of the growth and progress of the Catholic Church I was representing the struggles and the difficulties of the Irish emigrant or settler of the present century.
I was also anxious to ascertain the real nature, that is the strength or the intensity, of the sentiment which I had reason to believe was entertained by the Irish in the United States towards the British Government; as I considered, and I hold rightly, that the existence of a strong sentiment or feeling of hostility is a far more serious cause of danger, in case of future misunderstanding or complication, than any organisation, however apparently extensive or formidable. I have
