Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 2, 10 May 1895, Page 11

Dublin Notes.

(From contemporaries.) «T Patrick's Day was celebrated in Rome with great pomp and •nthusiasm. Both on Saturday and Sunday several most interesting Teligious ceremonies took place in connection with the national featiTal. On Sunday the Rev Patrick Raleigh, 0.5.A., in the absence of the Very Rev Prior Glynn, who is at present in Ireland, presented the shamrocks taken from the grave of St Patrick, DownPatrick, to his Holiness the Pope, who most graciously received them, «nd said that he would wear them over his heart in love for 8t Patrick and Ireland on our national festival. Mr Sexton, M.P. presiding at the annual meeting of the Freeturn's Journal Company, said last year there was an overdraft at tkeir bankers of between £10,000 and £11,000. Not only had that Bum been paid, but there was a substantial earn to their credit. Tbe profit was subitantial, yet not great enough to enable them to pay a dividend, but the directors, intended not later than the time of the next annual meeting, and pos3ibly before it, to submit a proposal for the payment of a dividend, and to invite the discussion of the abareholders upon it. On Tuesday, March 19, Most RevDr Hoare was consecrated Bishop of the historic dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. The ceremony was performed by his Eminence Cardinal Logue assisted by prelates representative of all the Irish provinces. A warm welcome has been given to the new pastor by his flock. They know him and they love < him. Those who read his Lordship's replies to the various addresses presented to him will have no difficulty in understanding why. They breathe the spirit of charity, zeal, toleration, *od patriotism ; and there need be no fear that under his Ltrdship's rule Church and people will find themselves cut of sympathy or in conflict in Ardagh We wish his Lordship many years of fruitful labour for the sacred causes that he holds so dear. The appointment of Sir Anthony MacD mnell to the LieutenantGovernorship of the North-west Provinces of India has been learned by his acquaintances in Ireland with much pleasure. He baa won the high position which he now occupies by sheer merit. The new Lieutenant-Governor is tbe eldest son of the late Mark G. MacDonnell, and brother of Dr Mark MacDonnell, M.P. for one of the divisions of Queen's County. He was educated at the Queen's College, Galway, and entered the Indian Civil Service at an early age. He was successively secretary to the Governor of Bengal and of the Bengal Legislative Council, and secretary to the Governor of India in the Home Department, Chief Commissioner in Burmah in 1889, and afterwards Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces. The Ulster Unionists are raising another fund to carry on the war against Home Rule. A joint appeal has been issued by the Ulster Convention Leapce, the Ulster Loyalist Union, and the Ulster Liberal- Unionist Association. £10,000 is asked from the Northern province. This is only half the amount that is to be used for purely propagandist work in view cf the coming election. The Irish Unionist Alliance ie. the appeal state*, prepared to co-operate on equal terms. Tbe scope of the operations carried on is described in one parapraph of tbe appeal. "The work which has been done by our respective associations" runs the appeal, "is well known to you. We have paid close and effective attention to the electoral registers, we have supplied active workers and effective speakers before and during bye-elections, and we have diffused throughout tbe United Kingdom, in the shape of book", pamphlets, »>nd newspapers, important information in compendious form bearing upon the Unionist cause." This is the nature of attack which the Irish Party has to meet if tbe interests of the national cause are to be safeguarded. Their foes are well equipped with money, men, and political literature. They carry on the battle for ascendency everywhere and in every way. They are a solidly united phalanx. They have no renegades or cranks in their camp whispering to the rank and file to cripple their leaders until their own pst fads are carried out. If the Irish people mean to win they will take a leaf oat of the enemy's book. Their opponents have wealth on their side, but the people have justice, numbers, and conviction. Let them also secure the strength of union and they will be invincible. Mr Morley'a Bill for the relief of Irish distress is a very brief measurr It simply enables boards of guardians to give out-door relief to persons not hitherto entitled to it, and allows those who accept such relief to do so without risk of disfranchisement. There will be some question of the sufficiency of such a measure. Wh?re there is most distress there precisely will the poor law guardians be most reluctant to increase rates. The poorest counties of Ireland are those where ihe prop r- i tion of paupers is smallest. Donegal is a striking example to ihe point. The Chief Secretary would have done well both for the relief of distress and the improvement of our leading industry had he accepted tbe excellent suggestion of Mr Pextoo, and provided loans on easy terms for improving tenants. The Labour Commission has thrown light on the distress that exist! among the rural labourers in

ordinary seasons, and the deterioration tbat is proceeding in Irish farming owing to the lack of capital for the making and maintenance of improvements in recent years. If the capital were made easily available to tenant*, as it was formerly to landlords, one source of distress and idleness would be removed. The Archbishop of Dublin has put an end to the political contests between Catholics which were threatened ia cooufctijn with the election of Poor-Law Guardians for the North Dublin Union. A very serious danger has thus been averted, as division under the circumstances would be ruinous to the interests of the Oaboiic poor. By his wise and timely action in the matter he has also given greater impetus to the policy of conciliation which is undoubtedly making headway among tbe people of Dnblin. In his letter to Mr Oarolan, chairman of the North Dublin Union, deprecating the threatened contests, Dr Walsh says : I am, of coarse, aware bow emphatically it is urged by some ardent political partisans that the difference which at present so unhappily and so ruinously divides our people in the politic* 1 sphere is not a political difference merely, but that it also has its moral and, therefore, political aspect. Now, there are always Catholics who wish to be more Catholic than the Church. As regards Dublir, so far as my knowledge of public affairs extends, tbe conflict, in the various forms in which it has made itself in any way seriously felt amongst us since the tragic day of Mr Parnell's death in October, 1891, has tnrned upon issues that are either exclusively political or exclusively personal. Upon such issues, as upon any others in the whole field of merely political or personal controversy it surely is open to Catholic?, in so far as regards their religious duty, to range themselves at one side or the other, according as one side or the other commends itself the more to their political judgment. The one vital moial issue, the importance of which as a matter of Catholic principle outweighed that of all other issues in the case, has through the course of events long since disappeared from its old place of prominence in the dispute. If the present disastrous political division is to be kept up, I for one, feel bound to see that no opportunity is given to keep it up here under cover of an appeal to religion-