This  is  not  a  Protestant  crusade  for  the  overthrow
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Were  it  such,  I
could  not  stand  here  to  defend  it  ;  and  I  assure  you
that  the  King  of  Prussia  would  not  feel  at  all  com-
plimented if  this  meeting  should  place  him  in  the
attitude  of  the  leader  of  a  religious  war  against  the
Church  of  Rome.  Devout  in  the  faith  and  the  prac-
tice of  the  Evangelical  Church,  of  which  he  is  the  con-  '^''p  ^"ip'^-

>-•  '  ror  s  irn-

stitutional  head,  it  is  nevertheless  his  pride  as  a  sove-  p^''"^'"y-
reign  to  be  an  impartial  ruler  over  all  his  subjects.
The  recent  ecclesiastical  laws  of  Prussia  were  not  Ecciesksticai

laws.
measures  of  arbitrary  power.  Those  laws  were
passed  constitutionally  by  large  majorities  of  both
Houses  of  Parliament,  and  they  have  just  been  rati-
fied overwhelmingly  at  the  polls.  I  know,  indeed,
that  a  majority  may  sometimes  prove  the  worst  of  ^i='J<;"".>t'';S
tyrants.  For  many  years  in  New  York  I  lived  under  'y-'^'"""'-
the  rule  of  an  Irish  Catholic  majority,  with  its  '  rings '
and  robberies,  its  corruption  of  the  polls,  of  the
press,  and  of  justice  itself;  and  I  assure  you  that,
after  such  experience,  I  cannot  recommend  the  expe-
riment of  an  Irish  republic  on  this  side  of  the  water.
But  this  Prussian  majority  is  not  tyrannical,  arbi-
trary, nor  i)ersccuting.      In   dealing   willi  tlie  Ultra-

N


'I'he  Church
of  the  Va-
tican.
90  S/.  Jaines  Hall  Meeting.
