The New York Public Library, Berg Collection of
English and American Literature
Dickens to M. De Cerjat, Page 2.
On this page, Dickens continues with the anti-Catholic disquisition he had begun on the previous page, writing that the English people know that a richly
endowed church, forced upon a people who don't belong to it, is a grievance with those people. They know many things--but especially an artfully and schemingly managed institution like the Romish church--thrive upon grievance and that Rome has thriven exceedingly upon this, and made the most of it. Lastly the best among them know that there is a gathering cloud in the West, considerably bigger than a man's hand, under which a powerful Irish-American body, rich and active, is always drawing Ireland in that direction.