This
Mr. Godley held to be absolutely necessary. Before the Lords' Committee
on Colonization he is asked: "Has any mode occurred to you by which a
more compacted social organization might be given to emigration,
carrying with it more of the characteristics and elements of improved
civilization than at present exists?" He answers: "Yes. I have explained
my views upon the subject at considerable length elsewhere. I think that
the nucleus of an Irish Roman Catholic emigration must be
ecclesiastical, I think they are debarred from going upon the land and
settling socially, by the want of the ordinances of their church; I
think that the first and most important element, in an Irish social
settlement must be religious and ecclesiastical."[285] Again he is
asked: "At the present moment, has it come within your knowledge, that
the want of such spiritual care and assistance checks the progress of
settlement among Irish emigrants, and, consequently, to a certain
extent, discourages emigration?" "Certainly," Mr. Godley answers, "it
prevents them from going upon the land all over America." "How does it,"
he is further asked, "prevent them from going upon the land?" "In this
way," he replies, "they being too poor to take the priest with them to
the wilderness, in order to partake of the ordinances of their church,
and to enjoy spiritual advice and comfort, remain in the towns, where
they are simply labourers, and are checked in going upon the land as
rural settlers.
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