Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 38, 26 June 1891, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

("From the National Papers.) Thk purpose of Mr Cox's mission to Australia bas been evidently misrepresented by the Parnellite wire-pullers. He did not go there to solicit support for bia party in tht present dispuU. He went to ask Irish- Australia not to allow the evisted tenants to be sacrificed. Theirs is a cause not involved in the straggle except in so far as Mr Parnell wills. But despite Mr Parnell they must be saved. p Mr John H. Parnell, brother of Mr C. B. Parnell, who owns a tfrriit farm in Georgia, has been called to Ireland by this brother. It H stated that he is among the number of candidates Mr Parnell is selecting to contest Irißh constituencies at the next general election. We suppose that the choice has fallen on him because of bis service? to and sufferings for his country. The tenants of Mr Parnell in county Armagh will more than ever appreciate the meaning of Mr Parnell's pretensions. The second step in the attack on Messrs Dillon and O'Brien bas been taken. Last week Mr Parneil praised their gaoler. His words were immediately followed by Mr John Redmond's declaration that the Plan of Campaign should be abandoned for want of funds to carry it on, and that the tenants should betake themselves to Clanlicarde, Massareene, Lansdowne, and the rest of the Shylocks asking for a settlement. As if there would be any chance of getting a settlement now, when it is plainly declared that the resources of the peasants are within measurable distance of exhaustion. Ireland has given yet another prelate to the Cathclie Church ia America. The Rev Dr Brennan, lately consecrated Bishop of the new diocese of Dallaß, Texas, is a native of Tipperary, which he left when young. He studied his classics at Rouen, France, under the care of the Snlpiciam ; his theology at Innßbruck, Austria, and received the Doctor's cap at Home. Bishop Brennan will make the Ghnjch of the Sacred Heart in Dallas, Texas, the pro-cathedral, and will proceed at once to build a cathedral and orphan asylum and establish a new Order of Sisters and a religious Order of men. Bishop Brennan, who is the youngest prelate in the United States, has one ol the largest dioceaeß, covering 22,000 square miles, with a Catholic population of 22,000. Dr Brennan speaks a score of languages. The air is full of rumours of a general election. The Unionists deny that we are near a dissolution. But the Liberals have warned their followers to be ready for an appeal to the country any date rfter the beginning of June. Those in Ministerial circles state that rUwaß some time ago decided to have the election between the haymaking season and the harvest next year, and they declare that the plan has not been changed. It is not impossible that when the Land Bill is through the House we may have a surprise dissolution sprung upon us. The constituencies represented by Parnellitcs ought, therefore, to be up and doing. Mr Leamy, M.P., not satisfied with che notoriety he gamed as the grabber of Mr William O'Brien 8 newspaper, has now turn°d priest-hunter, and thrown in his lot with Messrs Harrington and Co. At Kingstown, on Monday, April 20, he told his audience that if the hierarchy gained an ascendancy in politics it would come to pass khat no Protestantß at rfll would be admitted to a Home Rule Parliament ; and, moreover, that the priests hid never been Nationalists till now. The wretched creature who could willingly stoop to such lying misrepresentation of tha ever faithful bishops and priests of his native country is not to be envied. In the arms of Colonel Sanderson or Ballykilbeg's he will Had a fit resting-place, and to that congenial abode his constituent will relegate him at the firßt opportnnity. Mr Michael Davitt on Monday, Apnl 27, severed his connection with the Labour World. Circumstances, sa)B the London correspondent of the National Press, have not tended lately to the sucoess of the paper, and as these were not entirely within the control of Mr Llavitt, it is a matter for regret among his Irish friends and all ffiends of the labour movement here that matt erß have so turmd out. Mr Davitt will retire from public life for the present and will spend some time in the United States in the neighbourhood of San Francisco. The directors of the Labour World have been induced to carry on the paper under new management, with the help of additional new cipital, subscribed by the friends of Mr H. W. Ma sing. ham, formerly of the Star, who has been installed as eJitor. Sir Thomas Esmonde, in a letter to a constituent, has very clearly stated the position of the Irish party towards both Liberals and Unionists. Their alliance with the former is as independent now as it ever was. " Our position to-day is," he writes, " plainly this > — We have worked for the past five year?, and we mean to continue working, in honourable and self-respecting alliance witb the Brrmh democracy and the English Liberal party. The English Liberal party have promised us Home Rule. As things go it in ouly fioiu them that we can expect Home Rule. The Eoghsh Tory p.irty do not offer us a Homo Rule Bill. Wbc.ii they do it wilt bo time enough to discuss an alliance with them, We shall welcome Home Rule

from whatever quarter it may come. Meantime we decline emphatically to ally ourselves with Coercionists, be they Liberals or Tories, The English "Liberal party have not changed in their attitude towards our cause. In spite of the unfortunate occurrences of the past few months, Mr Gladstone has nailed the Home Rule flag to the mast-head. When that flag is struck it will be for us to reconsider our position. Bat while it flies we shall persevere in the parley we have followed with such success since 1886." The fallen leader's manifesto to the Irish National Lsagtta of Great Britain must be a welcome pronouncement for his follower*. " Our only leader " takes them at their word, and creates of his own free will an executive which he intends shall supersede the old one which has worked so long and so well. In consonance with their views, he has gone further and made Charles S. Parnell, M.P., president of this executive. Fault may be found with him, howeTer, by Borne for nominating two vice-presidents and a committee of fourteen. Where is the necessity for them ? " Our only leader " certainly possesses more than sufficient qualifications to do the work of these sixteen gentlemen. But, then, we must remember that all that will be required from them is implicit obedience to O. 8. Parnell in all things. This is tht only qualification for an Irish Nationalist sine* the proceedings in the Divorce Court. " la 1880-81," says the fallen leader, " I founded the Land League of Great Britain, out of which has grown the National League. I guarded both organisations from the breath of English influence. I made both independent." If this be true where, might we ask, is the necessity for creating a new executive to take the.' place of the old one ? Why, according to the Parnellites, the entire body has gone wrong ; it is little better than an English Liberal organisation, and Its respected President, Mr T. P. O'Connor, M.P., according to Mr. Parnell's Dublin organ, can scarcely be called an Irishman. The Irishmen of England will enjoy his appeal to them, " to maintain the attitude of a self-respecting people, to assert the principle of National independence, to show the spirit of a fearless race, to declare that Irishmen shall alone regulate the conduct of Irish business. Oar fellow-countrymen in England require no appeal from the fallen leader to do their duty by themselves and by their country. Had he known anything of their glorious history he might have refrained from casting a doabt on their integrity. Even some Unionists are beginning to grow disgusted with the outcry against the Irish priesthood. The Spectator of last week, commenting upon Sir Henry J tmes's speech, observes that while they go the whole way with him in the denunciation of clerical intimidation — of ths use of which we may observe there has not been the smallest scrap of evidence offered— they think " that there is som« disposition manifested in his speech to treat as wrong and unconstitu-tio-al both the offering of advice by the priesthood and the taking of such advice when it is offered by the laity ; and if that is what it means, we cannot at all agree with him." " It is perfectly absurd," this Unionist organ remarks, " to assume that a priesthood has not quite as much right to offer advice frankly in relation to the exercise of political as it has in relation to the exercise of domestic or personal discretion. Protestant pastors certainly do so, and we never heard of any proposal to regard it as an unconstitutional act in a Methodist parson or a Baptist minister that he had recommended hia (lock to vote for the Disestablishment of the Church of England. Almost all the Welsh Nonconformist ministers do, we imagine, use, and eveu strain their influence in that direction, and it would be quite absurd for Churchmen to cavil or protest against any such use of influence acquired in the pulpit for the promotion of political objects. It is no more objectionable than a lawyer's use for political purpoaeß of influence acquired in advising his cliOLt on the conduct of Ins private affdirs, or of a good landlord'! use of his influence with his teuants so lung as it does not go a step beyond the free tendering of his advice. Indeed, it may well be lew objectionable. A priest ought to be, and not unfrcquently is, one of the very bist men in his parish, and, of course, where it is so, hia example and bis principles and an councils do righ'ly affect the conduct of his people not only in private but in pub: matters. We no more blame a Roman Catholic peasant who has no very strong view of his own for voting by the advice of bis pastor, than we blame an English Churchman or a Scotch Presbyterian for deciding his course in a similar manner. In fact, such advice is one of the mo9t legitimate of all elements in the consideration of the question how to vote to any man who his not made politics a special study and interest of his own." The first two contests of the " miniature general election " have been won by the Tories. In Mid-Oxford, Mr Benson, who is known to the tenants of Falcarragh, has been defeated ; and in Whitebaven, Mr Shee, a Catholic barrister. The former constituency was not contested in 1886, and we are not surprised, therefore, that it was not won. The Liberal majority in 1885 was a small one, and we have noticed ' hat a is a consistent feature of the contests in constituencies where nu contest took place in 1886 that the results are not nearly so sut'bfdctuiy for the advocates of Honre Rule as iv the constitn* enciea where tiucU contests did take piac<;, A contest has au educa-

tive influence. Whitehavm, however, we had hoped to see won. It is somewhat of an eccentric constituency, for the majority of 1886 was smaller than the Tory majority of 1885. The majority in the former year was 211 ; in the latter it was only 116. Now it is 233, or 12 more than in 1885. For once we agree with the Freeman't Journal, which says of the result : " Possibly, if we had had a united party, and if the independent alliance of Nationalists and Liberals bad been preserved, we might have made an impression upon the consti^eucy. It is just remotely possible! we might. So much was drae in that way during the bye-elections which preceded the split in the Irish ranks, that it is not going tooi far to. assume that even the torpidity of staid and stolid Whitehaven would bave bent to it." Is our contemporary at last becoming conscious of the evil that has flown from Mr Parnell's adultery^and his attack on the alliance between the two democracies ? Ireland will know how to resent the insult sought to be put upon the Archbishop of Cashel in his own home by the miserable cliqne whom Mr Parnell has befooled. When one compares the characters and records of the two men, we wonder what spirit has possessed itself of those who would outrage the former for the glorification of the adulterer. The Irish race will sympathise with the patriot prelate, and we have not a doubt that in Greater Ireland no deed of Parnellism will provoke such indignation as this. " Ten years ago, while making my annual visitation," said his Grace, " 1 was carried in more than regal triumph from one end of this great diocese to the other, , cheered to the echo as I went along by^the voice, and sustained by the encouragement and approval of auuited people. Have I changed , in any substantial way since then ? Have I dishonoured my high ofice? Have I done anyihiog unworthy of /Tipperary ? Have I abjnred the aspirations cf my youth, or repudiated the principles of my maturer years T Have I besought for place or endowment for myself or others? Have I profited in any respect by the agitation of which I have been a conspicuous, as well as consistent, and fearless supporter? Have I grown cold towards my countrymen, or taken to my heart their enemies and revilers ? Have I ever refused to grasp the hand of an honest friend, or to open my purse to those that were in need T No ; I hive done none of these things. lam itill what, long years ago, I was described to be, unchanged and, unchangeable, unchanged as truth itself, and unchangeable as the Bock from which, as your Archbishop, I proudly lake my title." Would to heaven that the hero of the Parnellite m^b were as unchangeable as this. Then we wouid be spar-.d the scandals which are gradually substituting for the sympathy which t^e civilised world feels for a nsble cauße a measureless contempt for the deceit which has broken the National ranks, and the stupidity that has been gulltd by the deceiver,