Mercer Chronicle

16 THE MERCER CHRONICLE.
With quiet innuendo seek to hint,
While at the Sceptre Koyal they would squint,
And squint in vain though Eome would bear them out, 45
And prop the Virgin on the nobles' rout !
******* *
Of Mary bright, of George's daughter sing
Who built the Hospital, abjured the ring —
A virgin true, still true to all her race,
Not Mercers merely, but of human trace.
In Dublin still Miss Mercer's Hospital,
Is proof serene of Christian love for all !
Of Fairfax Mercer we have nought to pen,
His lands 46 in Roden's powerful grasp we ken.
Nor would we miss that quiet loving race
Who worthily inhabit " Farm Lodge " place —
A race for virtue and for beauty known,
As all attest who live in Belfast town.
45 Which she will do. The three estates can be upheld without the aid
of Rome ; whereas the interference of an interested priesthood can only
do harm ; harm to religion, harm to the state ! The masses of England
represented by the " Volunteers " will never (mark the word) tolerate
Rome in potver. Therefore leave religion free, and a reformed Church of
Great Britain, with a revised ritual, must thrive. The Laity of Great
Britain are disposed to respect a Clergy acting up to the dictates of
the Bible. Religion in England now is one great sham ! while thousands
in Britain are sighing for vitality in religion, and the truth as it is in
Jesus. We are on the eve of great religious changes ; let the State keep
all sects in order, but allow none to drag it on to destruction I Isaac Butt,
God help his name, for he is far beside the mark ! in his " Plea for the
Celt," at p. 22, calls the old Norman noblesse, Anglo-ROMANS ! ! Shades
of the Barons of England, and is it come to this depth, that ye are to be
thus impugned 1 !
Of course this strain is too lofty to be long sustained, even by a Butt,
and at p. 24 he descends to dignify them with their old quiet designation
Anglo-Norman. I pretend to be no prophet, but to some reading, and I
do think it will be hard if the aristocracy of England shatter their noble
vessel the " Magna Charta " on the sunken rock of Rome ! This false
friend of Ireland, we hear, would make a bid for Tipperary ! ! ! — 1. 8.
46 Fairhill, County Louth, which came into possession of the Roden
family through marriage with an heiress — Mary, da. of Fairfax Mercer.
His sister Alicia,married, a.d. 1750, to Stephen Cassan, Esq., is described