Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 44, 8 March 1895, Page 19

Dublin Notes.

(From the Weekly Freeman).

The Home Rule Vicar of Plumpton, Cumberland, Rev H. M. Kennedy, M.A., his issued to the Evesbam electors a telling little leaflet. in which he puts a few facts about the Lords in a most forcible fashion. He points out that " the Lords, on average, hold over 27,000 acreseacb, Ten acres per family meins all the land, good and bad, of the United Kingdom. Eveshatn has about 10,000 families. Four average Lords grip 10,000 more acres than all Eveeham's average shares put together ! The weekly rent from this land to each average Lord exceeds £140 Ten years ago the Lords, by a majority of 39, voted 2\ hours a week to be quite enough work for them, and that three Lords out of 56 I was enough to make a quorum 1 The Lords hjld nearly 4,000 church livings. . . ." He appeals to Evesham to join the grand united army of labour ai.d change all this.

Oa Thursday, January 17, the Court of the Protestant General Synod opered the investigation of a most extraordinary chaige of heiesy against Rev James Hunt, Rector of Djnegore, in the diocese of Connor. Trie basis of the charge is a series of letters writ ea b> the clergyman in question to tie IrUh News, in which he maintained that the sacrifice of the Mass was not repugnant to Proteb. ant doctrine, aaJ severely criticise! the Prott stint Archbishop of Dublin regarding his proceedings in connection with the cjnsecratiun in Spain. In one of the letters the following strong passage appeared — Now, sir, bring any Zulu to Belfast during the present week. Let him spend three days in the Catholic churches ; let him see there the penitents crowding to the confessionals to make ther preparation for Christmas Cunmunion ; let him note the earnestness of the rc-t who are kneeling in all parts of th.> church. Than lot him spend the rest of the week in walking round the Protestant churches, maiking well their bulwarks and telling the towers thereof, tor icbide the barred and locked gates he would not be able to enter, und then aek him whether the nevi', knowing that his time is short, could devise a greater cruelty tuau to endeavour to seduce the CJngregutun of the former into the lathr. And he further added — Let me say frankly that ra'her iban that the homble history of Pr.ikstant asre-.dancy in this country should be re-enacted among the bluo hills of Spain 1 would prefer that the new conventicle in Mddnd shonld ba filled to the roof with dynamite even though half the city were blown into fragments along with it.

The acute distress which prevails in Donegal owing to the failure of the potato crop is most pointedly brought undtr the notice of th« Chief. Secretary by a letter frum Mr Swift Mactfeill, M.P. It is unnecessary to emphause the punts of Mr MacNeili's remarkable statement of what he himtelf has seen and heaid during hrn nceut visit to bis constituents. The cas; is not one for pieturei-que wordpainting. Ihe simple facts are eloquent of misery, r.nd call loudly for prompt action by the Government. Mr Morley cannot hope to deal suitably with this, or indeed any other Irish matter, if be confines his inquiries to the public officials. He will, we are sure, ex' Lnd his investigations further, and put himself in touch with the facts by consulting men of all creeds and classes familiar from personal experience with the wants of the people. Mr MAcVei.'ei letter fixes him with knowledgo of a very serious state of affurs m Donegal, and measures to alleviate as far as may be Lhe acute diMress now prevailing in the Western Highlands will, we trust, be taken with protnpitude and energy.

Ulbter is beginning to speak oat. There was no uncertain sound at ihe meeting mainly composed of Presbyterian clergymen

and farmers, which was held at Saintfield, County Down, on Saturday. Tue meeting was presided over by a deputy-lieutenant of the county, and no Irish member was present. Yet there was no mistaking the grit of the meeting. One of the speakers, Rev Mr ThomsoD, of Castlereagh, declared that he honoured Mr Russell for his services, but hejhonoured equally Mr J. Morley, the chairman, for his services, and he gave hie thanks to Mr M'Cartan and Mr Sexton, Ha wa9 prepared to give his thanks to any man, be he Jew or Gentile, Pagan or Christian, who would advocate the cause of the tenant farmers. He further declared that " they bad a battle to fight, and they must fight it at the polling booth. They had been made free by the Ballot Act and the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881— they had been made free by the genius of the grand emancipator, William Ewart Gladstone, He told them, without saying a word of his latter-day policy, bat remembering the days of old, he would be ashamed to be present at a meeting of farmers where the name of Gladstone was not honoured with an ovation,"

A venerable fieure has disappeared from the Irish episcopate, of which he was the doijin, n the peison of the most Rev Dr Gillooly, BishoD ot X phitt, who difd at The Palace, Shgo, at 11 o'clock oa Tuesday night, January 13. He had been ailing for a considerable tun", and during the last two days al < hope of his recovery had been practically abandoned. The sad tiding?, needless to say, were received with the utmost sorrow in the town and district. Dr Gillooly, before his elevation to the See of Elphin, had been a priest of the Congregation of the Mission. He was elected Coadjutor to the late Most Hey Dr Browna on the 18th February, 1536, was consecrated on the 7th September in the same year, and succeeded to the S:e on the Ist December, 185 S. The departed Bishop was a man of commanding presence, of great grace and dignity of appearance, and a man of ripe learning and convincing eloquence, and a strict disciplinarian. He male the diocese a model to Ireland in the perfection of its ecclesiastical equipment. His silver jubilee some thirteen years ago wig a demonstration wortay of his career. Four Bishops took part in the ceremonials, anj he was overwhelmed with innumerable gifts and congratulations. The gifts he passed on to the most needy and meritououe charities in his diocese ; the congratulations ha received with dienified humility, lhe Most Liev Dr Gilooly was not merely a grea \\ j > t - t hut a good Irishman. But, after all, it is as a great bishop, a born ruler ami guider of men, an oiganiser of untiring devotion and boundKss resources, a liberal and powerful patron of religion, education, t.nd chanty, that the Most Rev Dr Gilooly will bj remembered. Among his ecclesiastical colleagues he was held in the profoundest respect and esteem, and they will sorely miss his voice from their councils The gifted aid energetic young bishop who succeeds him on the epuopal throne of Elphin haa a noble example before him of what z -al ajd energy can effect. The work of organising the diocese has been practically accomplished, and it rem ins for the successor of the Mos f Rev Dr Gillooly to utilise the equipment that has been placed ready to his hand. That this will be done, and that the new bishop wil' be a worthy successor of the old, no one who knows him can doubt.