workings we see in those colonies so distant from the mother-country.

This, for the time being, is the chief providential mission of
Ireland, and it is truly a noble one, undertaken and executed in
a noble manner by so many thousands, nay millions, of men and
women--poor, indeed, in worldly goods when they start on their
career, but rich in faith; and it is as true now as it has ever
been from the beginning of Christianity, that haec est victoria
nostra, fides vestra.

These few words of our Preface would not suffice to prepare the
reader for the high importance of this stupendous phenomenon. We
We purpose, therefore, devoting our second chapter to the subject,
as a preparation for the very interesting details we shall furnish
subsequently, as it is proper that, from the very threshold, an
idea may be formed of the edifice, and of the entire proportions
it is destined to assume.

We have so far sketched, as briefly as possible, what the following
pages will develop; and the reader may now begin to understand
what we said at starting, that no other nation in Europe offers so
interesting an object of study and reflection.

Plato has said that the most meritorious spectacle in the eyes of
God was that of "a just man struggling with adversity." What must
it be when a whole nation, during nine long ages, offers to Heaven
the most sublime virtues in the midst of the extremest trials? Are
not the great lessons which such a contest presents worthy of study
and admiration?