Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 46, 11 March 1887, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The Saturday Review, as we might rationally suppose has been a good deal put out by Mr. Gladstone's reference, in his article on Lord Tennysou's

AN ECCENTRIC PROCEEDING.

said, " strange to say on olub i :>er." — A fict nevertheless, which was explained without casting any . aster reflection on the memory of the deceased General, and, as to the statement of the Observer, it was made the text of a clever lay-sermon preached by Mr. Thackeray in the Corn Hill Magazine. Another ;range instance of the use of stamped paper is now said to haveoccuned in connection with the resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill, but concerning which it is feared that no satisfactory explanation can be made. — It is reported, in short, that the resignation was written on Windsor Castle paper, thereby betraying that the noble Lord had written it during the time that he was the guest of her Majesty the Queen, to whom, notwithstanding, he gave no hint of his intention. — And her Majesty is said to be highly incensed at the manner in which sbe was ignored: The first intimation of the step taken by him was given by Lord Randolph to the editor of the Times with whom he was closeted far an hour or so at a late hour of the night, and who took extraordinary precautions to prevent any hint of the affair from getting out into the other newspaper offices until his own publication had been made. The matter is said to have secured for the Times a new importance and to have been worth to it fully five thousand pounds in money. But tbat did not hinder Lord Randolph from being severely dealt with in its columns. — The eccentric manner, meantime, in which the resignation was made known has been almost as much a topic for conversation and comment of one kind or another as the resignation itself and all it nvolved.

DETILISH ENGINERY.

poem, to the manner in which the Union vas carried. Its comments on the matter run as follows :— " The words 1 devilish enginery,' are borrowed from the least admirable passage in Paradise Lost wheie they are applied to Satan's early invention o* gunpowder and cannon. For once during the composition of his great poem Milton laboured under the delusion that his genius included a comic element. It is not certain whether Mr. Gladstone employs the borrowed phrase with a facetious purpose. It is more dignified to stigmatise the policy of Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh as devilish than to condemn it as blackguardly. Here, as elsewhere Mr. Gladstone apparently forgets that he professes a desire to maintain the union in disregard of its Tartarean origin. He has, perhaps Borne dim consciousness that notwithstanding his reservations the restoration of an Irish Parliament would be in itself a repeal of the union. It is a preposterous assumption that, even if a law had been passed by devilish enginery eighty-seven years ago, it ought now to be repealed. During the whole of the interval between the date of the union and Mr. Gladstone's last return to office, every statesman has approved the product of Mr. Pitt's ;devilish enginery." All that is necessary then, to justify anything, however vile, is a due lapse of time and the approval of eminent men. The principles of truth and justice in themselves go for nothing. The devilish enginery— and we conclude that what is devilish is blackguardly as well— for it is to be presumed that the devil is also the father of blackguards— has been prolonged all through in the system established by the union and no approval by anyone can justify or excuse it. The very argument employed by the Revinv betrays the weakress of his cause.

THE " TABLET ' AGAIN.

The London Tablet of January Bth is fortunate enough to present its readers with the following extract from a book reviewed in its columns : " There never was a period when the Roman Catholics (I do not use the term invidiously), were the object of more violent fear and dislike than at present thanks to the violence of certain Irish members of the Catholic Church who want to be persecuted . If the English Catholics stood alone they would inspire respect at all times. The association with Ireland is their bane." The correspondence from which this passage is taken is that of the late Mr. Abraham Hayward, and the passage was written in 1856. But, at least, it is not the fault of the London Tablet and the party represented by it, if any association between the English and the Irish Catholic is any longer made, and if all the world does not clearly perceive the great gulf that exists between them. In the case of the Irish Catholic the faith is contained in a very shabby and contemptible, indeed in a wholly objectionable and disgraceful earthen vessel, but in the case of his English superior the vessel is of some choice and precious material, and in each instance it is the vessel that qualifies it contents, and not the contents that affect the vessel. The Catholic faith, they say, has been a failure in Ireland, and this is a truth which, for the credit of English Catholics of the Norfolk party, should be fully understood in every part of the world. We feel ourselves bound, therefore, to second the efforts of the Tablet so that, as we also do, our readers generally may acknowledge their inferiority, and confess that they are rightly held in detestation and contempt. The Tablet reviewer quotes the passage in question as an example of the very curions notion of the status of the Church in England entertained by Mr. Hayward, and that is all his comment on it. But at least the non-Catholic most ignorant of Catholic affairs should be able to distinguish between the Church as seen in her English and her Irish members. To suppose that even the faith itself forms a bond of union between them is a most absurd mistake. There is a very wide difference, and let us co-operate with the Tablet in making it universally recognised. \V edo but follow the lead of our interesting and most Christian superior.

PALTRY HEROISM.

Randolph Churchill's retirement from office is the disgrace which is thought to be entailed upon the family by the fact tha tthe head of it -was found innocent in the recent cause edlcbrr. The Duke's acquittal was certainly not in keeping with the family traditions. The Great Maryborough would have scorned to be suspected of being innocent in any affaire dc occur, and, what is more, he would probably have turned an honest thousand nr two by the transaction.

A SHAMEFUL ASPIRATION.

When the Crimean war began, the Emperor Nicholas in the savage frame of mind that resulted from his not altogether unfounded conviction that be had been treacherously dealt with, invoked the aid of " General Fevrier " as he called it, and gave a grim expression to his hopes of what the rigorous climate would do for him. The report of his utterance caused a great deal of indignation and disgust, and when at the time he had hoped for he himself, or all that was left of him, was a corpse. Punch in retaliation published a picture of what ■' General Fevrier "' had, in fact, brought with it. We find the enemies of Mr. Gladstone now resorting to an invocation that strikes us as, if possible, more cruel and inhuman than that made by the Russian Czar, and which consideration for the common infirmities of our nature should forbid. "The one point," writes one of them, " which every right-minded politician should keep in view to the exclusion of all others — is to prevent the possibility of Mr. Gladstone's return to office. Mr. Gladstone has just completed his seventyseventh year ; and if the combined efforts of the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists are able to keep him in opposition for another year or two, his powers of evil will have been pretty fairly exorcised, and his claws will have been permanently clipped by the effectual scissora of old age." Is there not something particularly odious in this greeting to a glorious old age, this allusion to the inevitable havoc that time must bring about, this aspiration for the destruction of an intellect that has done honour to the country which produced it, and to the race from which it is sprung ? If the Emperor Nicholas merited anger during his life, and a triumphant denunciation after his death, because he had invoked hardship and disease for the destruction of an army that menaced his Empire, what do| they not deserve who call upon dotage and infirmity to free them from a champion of the right, whom, in his strength and intellectual supremacy, they durst not meet? But in this we have a true illustration of the party who procured and would sustain the Union,

It may be remembered that when the late Lord Clyde died the London Observer caused some comment by stating that his will s written, as it

According to '• Ruffler " in Vanity Fair the hero is occasionally not altogether heroic. — He writes aa follows :—": — " I hear tbat the real reason of Lord

The controversy between Archbishop Oorrigan, and A. danobbods Mr. Henry George, with respect to the theory of theoby. which this gentleman is the author and advocatei has excited a good deal of interest in many places' and been much discussed. The conclusion at which moderate men arrive seems to be that in the main the Archbishop is right, and that» although some looseness of reasoning and statement in one or two in stances has given Mr. George an advantage, in substance he is at fault. But, perhaps, it is from a man who is not moderate that we obtain the clearest view as to the real tendency of the theory in question. Mr. Frederick Harrison , for instance, thinks, that Mr. George stops far short of the true goal, and that the nationalisation not only of land, but of railways, machinery, and factories, is but a beginning^ " All products," he says, " moveable or immoveable, lands, houses, , furniture, food, even clothes and tools, are all equally products of society, and should all be enjoyed or used in the name of society, and to the benefit of society." Mr. Harrison claims that the members of his own sect, the Positivists, are the only consistent Socialists, and he derides the conceit of the anarchist, even the noisiest anarchist, who fancies that he has a " right of property in his own boots, and hie own shirt." But probably a joint-ownership in these matters would be claimed by a chosen few only. We may even doubt as to whether Mr. Harrison himself would here make any practical use of his right. We learn, however, the risk that is attached to the acceptance of any such theory as that of Mr. Henry George. The logical conclusion to which it leads is manifest, and Mr. Harrison has fully explained it. We learn, indeed, from George Eliot, that common sense is the power that must save us from extremes, but where common sense is controlled by self-interest, or any other motive, it is hardly to be depended on. The necessity is evident for an authority in which an independent common sense resides, and which shall prescribe the limits to which it is lawful and wise to go. Where the right of pro* perty in land is concerned, as in other matters, we may rely on the authority of the Catholic Church, of which Archbishop Corrigan is an ' exponent, and which baa certainly never pronounced against such a proprietorship.

A PROOF TO THE CONTBABY. i

A orkat deal has of late years been said of the progressive element that exists in Mohamedaniam, and notwithstanding the example afforded'byJTurkey and other countries where the votaries of the Prophet hold sway, the effects of a " pure theism," as the cant phrase runs, have thus been pointed out.— lt is of interest therefore, to learn that as compared with Mahomedanism, heathenism in India ahowg more of a progressive nature, and that it is the effete and indolent Hindoos who display something of the spirit of the age rather than their Mahomedan neighbours. — The Native Congress, for instance, lately held at Calcutta was composed of the delegates of about two hundred political associations formed by the Hindoos. — The Mahomed ana declining to take any part in it, lest they should seem to show a distrust of the Government. — A political movement, meantime among the inhabitants of India is very important since the welfare of the British power there depends so completely upon the submission of the natives. — It woul i be impossible, were the people resolutely to determine on casting off the foreign yoke, to resist them. The vast population of the country makes this sufficiently evident and proves that England'siOnly safety lies in their fear or contentment. The time honoured plan of ruling by means of divisions could hardly be availed of in face o£ a union of the heathen element, for the Mahomedans, although they amount to the goodly sum of 40 millions, form only a comparatively insignificant minority — and, as we have seen, there does not appear to be auy superiority in them to make up for their inferior numbers. It is probable, therefore, that this political movement which has begun among the Hindoos will meet with all due consideration, and, like tbu religious of India, will receive a very di if erent treatment from movements of the kind in Ireland. — John Ball has ever been no' able as a respecter of circumstances.

ffatrns of BIGOTBY.

that It is occasionally capable of producing very mischievous effects from a Protestant point of view. — The execution of Louis Riel for instance, was the work of the Orangemen of Canada and their supported, n- - 1 S u ol 1 its effects aa they arc given to us by Vanity Fair. This rew»p.ip i il so has a word or two of more or less consequence to say about Michael Davitl. — "I hear from Canada that race feeling is run mm,' v<_> y high ous there juat now. . . . The hanging of Fiiel stirred up tbe anti-Snglish feeling among the French which was last disappearing, and the appeals by the Press which supports the Government of Sir John A. Macdonald to the religious feelings of tbe Protestants of the Dominion to rally against the Cataolic influence are haviag the effect that might be anticipated. The recent visit of Michael Davitt to the Province of Quebec where ht was tnthuriMticftlly received, bj» greatly contributed to bring

About a common understanding against England between the Iriih and the French elements."

WELL EMPLOYED.

What is in a colour any more than in a name f Might not the Orangeman conduct himself as valiantly when marching beneath the green as if it were his own peculiar hoe, and might he not drown the shamrock as enthusiastically in celebration of the glorious, pious, and immortal memory as, it is to be presumed, he now wets the orange lily 1 Of one thing we are sure, the memory itself would be none the less honoured or honourable. Orange ribbons its seems were all the wear the other day at the Oatholio fete given at Auckland and each visitor was requested to pin one to his breast. But let us not suppose the Victor of the Boyne moved nneasily in his grave, or that anywhere in Hades an indignant echo was aroused. They say that orange and purple belong to the Pope, and again they say that orange and black belong to the devil. As neither black nor purple was present, are we to suppose, in homely phrase, that there was a splitting of the difference, and in whose interests was the difference split ? And yet, again, was not the occasion that of a tournament, in which each knight must needs carry his lady's favour. Who is the fair lady whose favour is the orange ribbon, and does she belong to the present or the past ? Pope Joan, we know, was a creature merely of the malevolent imagination, and in honouring her the blaok and orange would hardly have been separated. A lady there is, and has been, identified with the green, but of whom we must not speak. Under some circumstances it would be dreadfully vulgar as well as wholly impolitic to show her colours to the popular eye, and on the occasion alluded to we see her flag was conspicuous for its absence, those of all countries except Ireland being prominently displayed. But, nevertheless, "bully" for the man who possesses the courage of his convictions, even though his mission be to transform those mere Irish into the infinitely more preferable and vastly superior Anglo-Saxon. If, however, the orange badge was worn, as there is some reason to believt, only to show that the wearer had paid his way in, and not obtained surreptitions entrance, let us acknowledge that it was a graceful act, once in a way, to make a colour often employed in a contrary manner the sign and token of honesty and decency.

CATHOLIC INVOBMATION.

The Saturday Remen in au article on the Nem Catholic Directory gives us a good deal of interesting information on Catholic matters. Some of his Temarks and comments, however, must be taken with caution, as we shall point out more particularly in due course* and, as for his conclusion, it is not for a moment to be thought worthy of consideration. We shall, nevertheless, borrow from him those passages which we think of interest to our readers. "It appears," he says, " that in England and Wales there are one Archbishop and fifteen Sufiragan bishops, including two auxiliaries-— for Westminster and Birmingham— while Scotland has two Archbishops and four Suffragans all in the province of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh, for the Archbishop of Glasgow is a mere titular dignitary without any Suffragans under him. In Ireland, where all the old Sees have been kept up as before the Reformation, there are four Archbishops and twenty-three Suffragans. The number of priests in England, including several who are invalided, retired, or unattached, is reckoned at 2,273, and in Scotland at 326, while the churches and chapels in England are 1280, and in Scotland 320. The Roman Catholic population of the United Kingdom (of England and Wales) is stated to be 1,354,000 ; of Scotland, 326,000 ; and of Ireland, 3,961,000, making a total o' 6,641,000. It need hardly be said that the immense majority of these* both in England and Scotland, are Irish."

THE OHUROH'B LOSS.

The Review then goea ou to quote the authority of the London Tablet with respect to the loss constantly sustained by the Church in Great Britain. " We gather that in spite of the annual growth of churches, schools, and clergy, and of ' Roman recruits '—distinguished or otherwise — there are ' thousands ' of the poor ' drifting every year ' oat of the Church both in England and Scotland. That the leakage is wholly or even mainly due to ' proselytising agencies,' as we are assured, it is very difficult to believe ; and we suspect it drifts much more largely to indifferontism or unbelief than to any form of Protestant worship. At all events, as we are expressly told that the children, ' eighty-four per cent, of whom become apostates,' have all been trained up as Catholics, there must be something defective in their education or their character if their inherited faith has so slight a hold upon them. One thing certainly is clear, that the fervid Catholicism of Ireland, of which we hear so much — and nine-tenths at least of these ' apostates,' be it remembered, are Irish— iß not a plant of sufficiently hardy growth to bear removal from its native soil. What the writer of the very interesting sketch of an ' Irish Parish Priest ' in Murray's Magazine, evidently drawn from the life, says of his hero, may be applied mutatis mutandis to people as well as priest; ho was a Nationalist agitator first and foremost, a priest (say •

It appears that Protestant bigotry is not the universally wholesome thing which those, who harbour it would persuade the world that it is — bnt

Catholic) only in the second place." Bat as it appears on excell"iit testimony, that of Mr. Spurgeon, for example, that the Protos ait Church in all its branches is suffering in a similar manner even ij its own particu ar realms and where the majority have hitherto be<»n its members, there is perhaps not so much to eurprice us in the falling away of Catholics, and the conclusions which Ibe Saturday Revicn draws from it may not appear after all so solidly grounded. Mr. Spurgeon, in a sermon recently preached by him, declared that an indifference to religion was creeping over the whole country, or at least over London. Millions, he Baid, neglected the worship of the Sabbath ; street after street produced one regular attendant alone on the preaching of the Word, and even in the churches, aa well those of the Nonconformists as of the Establishment, the doctrine delivered was strongly tinctured with infidelity. How, then, can the Catholic children escape in an atmosphere hostile to religion generally, above all to their faith, and where firm adhesion to that faith need? almost the maityr's spirit ? If even a remnant be saved it is a proof that a work of a miraculous kind has been performed, and the testimony to the fervid Catholicism of Ireland— the Catholicism that has leavened the whole world and is still the great missionary engine, remains unshaken. Irish Nationalism and Irish Catholicism do not, as the Saturday Review suggests, mutually contradict and destroy each other, but both go together in harmony, and no man more than the devoted Nationalist is found the faithful and devoted servant of the Church. Irish Nationalism in England, as elsewhere, is certainly one of the principal motives that checks the leakage to which the Review refers, But anyone taking his information from the London Tablet, as the Saturday Review does may be excused for his ignorance or prejudice on that point.

CATHOLIC " SWELLS."

To return to England (continues the Review), the Directory gives us a list of 41 Catholic peers and 58 baronets, 9 English and 9 Irish Members of the Privy Council, 5 English and 75 Irish M.P.'s — whether the five feel particularly proud of the seventy-five need not be inquired here. We believe we are right in saying that Mr. de Lisle, who sits for Mid-Leicestershire, is the first Roman Catholic Member elected for an English county since the Reformation."— And we all know how he feels towards the seventy-five. May Heaven defend him from a fit of apoplexy on their acoount.

THE CABDINALB.

generally. He calls attention, therefore, to what was said at the time of Pope Leo's accession respecting the manner in which his hands were tied owing to his Privy Council's being composed of ' Obscurantist ' Cardinals created by Pius IX. " But Cardinals for the most part are appointed at an advanced age, he says, and the succession, therefore, is apt to be a rapid one. It appears that already no less than 46 of them have died since the accession of Leo XIII., and of the 64 actual members of the body only 25 survive from the last reign, 39 being ' creatures ' — to use the technical term— of the ieigning Pope. It becomes therefore a matter of some interest to examine the present composition of the Sacred College, of which it may be observed to begin with that nearly half — thirty out of sixty-four are non-Italians, five of these thirty being British subjects, and a sixth, the Archbishop of Baltimore 3 a prelate of the United States. Of the British or American Cardinals two, Dr. Manning and Dr. Howard, were created by Pius IX., the remaining four by Leo XIII., the first he raised to the purple, as our readers are aware, being Cardinal Newman, the year after his accession. In the samp year Furstenberg, Archbishop of Olmutz, and Haynald, Archbishop of Kalocsa, were created Cardinals, both of whom voted non i^laoet at the Vatican Council, while HiynaLl was one of the moßt strenuous anti-infallibilistg. Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne, who waß nominated in 1885, also look a prominent part in the opposition, though he voted placet j nxta »todwn, Capecelat.ro, named Cardinal-priest in the same year, is one of the most learned and liberal-minded of the Italian clergy. And it is worth notice that of the thirty foreign — i.e. non-Italian — Cardinals more than half are nominees of Leo XIII. We doubt if the proportion of foreigners in the Sacred College has ever been so large as at present. That there have never before been so many Engl ish-speaking Cardinals at the same time is certain. The entire number, indeed, of English Cardi. nals both before and since the Reformation is not a very considerable one, but it comprises some names of great historical interest. Among them Robert Pulleyn, the Schoolman, Nicholas Brakespere, after" wards Adrian IV., Stephen Langton, Wolsey, and Pole are prominen* before the final separation of England and Rome, and Dr: Allen shortly afterwards, of whose zeal and ability there can be no question though it iB unhappily impossible to exculpate him, any more than the Pope and the King of Spain, from direct complicity with plots for the assassination of Elizabeth, . . . There is some controversy about three or four of the earlier alleged creations, but putting the total at its highest, there have only been about thirty English Cardinals from Robert P alley n in the twelfth century to the nomination

of Cardinal Wiseman in the middle of the nineteenth during a period of 700 years, whereas there are at this moment three English, one Irish and an American Cardinal living and the Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec, Taschereau, is also a British subject. Cardina* Cullen ia 1851 (1866 ?) was the first Irishman ever admitted into the Sacred College, and Cardinal M'Closky about ten years ago the first American." — The total of Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Sees in the British Empire meantime, the Review tells us, amounts to 142 " being between a seventh and eighth of the entire Episcopate of Latin Christendom." — But let us again draw the attention of our readers to the necessity for caution in dealing with this article from which we quote. — The " Obscurantist Cardinals," for example, as they were called, of Pius IX's Council, were supposed to be those who supported the claims unfailingly put forward to the restoration of the Temporal Power, and the hope of the enemies of the Papacy was that a " liberal " Pope with liberal Councillors would introduce an opposite policy. — That Pope Leo XIII. has grievously disappointed all such expectations we need hardly remind our readers, and the Cardinals whom he has created, and who support him firmly in his constantly reiterated claims, deserve no less than those of his great and holy predecessor the same insulting epithet. — Again concerning the Bishops who opposed the definition of infallibility it must be remembered that the question with them was as to whether the time for the definition was opportune. — They did what they had a perfect right to do, and all that waß required of them was that which they subsequently yielded, the submission of their judgment to the decision of the council.— The Review can make but little of the fact that Pope Leo has raised certain of these Bishops to the Cardinalate. Their docility and self-sacrifice even of themselves deserved some recognition. Finally as to the accusation that Dr. Allen was guilty of conspiring for the assassination of Queen Elizabeth, it is as the Review Bays, quite as true that he did so as that the Pope also took part in the plot. We are not concerned to defend the King of Spain. Allen held that if kings violated their faith to God and the people of God, their subjects were enjoined to desist from keeping faith with them — but further than that he did not go. The Popes who were contemporary with Elizabeth were Pius IV., whose genial nature absolves him wholly from suspicion; Pius V. who excommunicated the Queen bnt never consented to fcer murder ; Gregory XIII, who based strong hopes on her ultimate conversion ; Sixtus V., who said that he had more than once rejected such a proposition with horror ; Urbane VII. who, reigned for twelve days only ; Gregory XIV., who as Ranke says, was of a " spirit most pure and blameless ;" Innocent IX. who during his reign of two months was a helpless invalid ; and Clement VIII. who, says Ranke again, " conducted himself on all occasions with enlightened deliberation." — The accusation, in fact, rests on no trustworthy basis, and is merely one of those that belong to the Great Protestant Tradition, where like all the others it must abide.

The Review concludes as follows :— " According to AN IMPOSSIBLE the Directory, the Roman Catholic population of CONCLUSION, the British Empire is not far short of ten millions (9,682,000), of whom above half, hs we have seen, belong to great Britain and Ireland. Of the remainder, 175,000 are Europeans, and 980,000 Asiatics — chiefly in British India and Ceylo ll — 135,000 Africans, 668,000 inhabitants of Australasia, and the remaining 2,183,000 of British America. This enumeration suffices abundantly (o prove the accuracy of our recent assertion, thatEngland^ though a Protestant country, is at the same time a great Roman Catholic, as it is agaio. a great Buddhist and Mahometan power, whence it follows inter alia that we are intimately and practically concerned in the administration, and therefore bound for our own sake to cultivate friendly relations with the ruling authorities of the Roman Catholic Church." Things being thug, and no degree of argument serving to alter them— the Pope being, and being destined to remain the de facto head of tbc " presence and gradual expansion of a large and influential Roman Catholic element" in the British Empire, the questiou is how to deil with him." We may hold him at arm's length, but we cannot dispossess him of his power or withdraw ourselves from habitual contact with his cosmopolitan influence. The question is whether we should not do wisely, even from the most Protestant point of view, to conciliate the alliance of a power we are unable to coerce or destroy, if we can do ho, as we surely can without any sacrifice of dignity or independence. It can hardly, for example* be a matter of indifference to England or io the English Government what manner of men are the 150 bishops or so who exercise spiritual jurisdiction over some ten millions of our fellow-subjects, and how their jurisdiction is regulated ; we know, indeed, in some cases to our cost that it is not a matter of indifference." He then appeals to the example of China and Prussia, and bases great hopes on the friendly disposition shown by the Pope towards England — who has, he says " spoken even in official documents of the religious faith and zeal of English Christians, out of his own pale, in a tone of appreciation, sympathy, and respect." The cream of the joke, and the conclusion up to which the whole argument leads, are, in fact, that since England is so embarranre'd by a Catholic population throughout her Empire—

The Review, however, desires particularly to consider the nature of the College of Cardinals and the Catholic statistics of the British Empire

and above all, in Ireland— it may be worth her while to renew diplomatic relations with the Vatican so that she may control the appointment of his bishops by the Pope. The conclusion, howeven by no means follows necessarily from the premises, and so far as Ireland is concerned, we may venture to predict that it never will follow from them or any others. No sacrifice nor concession that England can ever make will buy for her from the Pope the invidious and detestable right of the Veto. That she should seek, after all her penal laws, and all her cruel enactments, to buy it, is not, however, a matter that should grieve or dismay the Irish people. It is a signal confession of failure and a testimony to their steadfastness and the efficacy of their resistance, as well as to the sympathy and union that exist between them and their hierarchy and clergy.