OUR IRISH LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 21, 24 May 1900, Page 9

OUR IRISH LETTER.

(From our own correspondent.) Dublin, March ?,l. A CHILD'S LOGIC. The other day I heard a good story of a little lassie who occasionally indulges in ' tantrums,' especially when she is left alone with grandmamma. On this occasion Lottie had a regular fieldday ; her grandmamma said she had never seen her so bad, so at bedtime the mother examined Lottie's conscience for her. ' Wasn't there a great, big battle fought at the war to-day ?' asked the young person. ' Yes.' - ' Weren't there thousands and thousands killed ?' ' I suppose so.' ' Well, then, don't you think God Almighty was too busy judging so many out there in Africa to mind what I was doing here ?' Mother quite understood how it had been a field-day at home. CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS AKD THE NAVY. We are often told that Catholics have not proper religious freedom out in Afrikander land, and this, Irishmen are informed, is one strong reason why it is their special duty and honor to fight the Boers. There are a few little religious troubles yet to be borne by the Outlanders in Ireland. The penal laws are not yet repealed M regards religious Orders, for example. Quite recently we had the Lord Chancellor of Ireland refusing his consent to two wards of court entering the noviciate preparatory to becoming Jesuits. Lately, again, a Catholic judge willed his library to a Jesuit house, but the bequest has not been carried out on account of the Fathers being outlaws. In England Catholic chaplains in the army have not by any means the standing or privileges of Protestant chaplains, while aB for the navy, save while in port, poor Catholic Jack has no chance of shrift or comfort in his dying hour, for the Admiralty will not permit the appointment of Catholic chaplains on board ship. In his Lenten Pastoral his Eminence Cardinal Logue called attention to this fact, and warned Irish parents against sending their boys into a service full of temptation and danger, yet where the men who die at sea or lose their lives in action must perish like dogs. Lately this matter was brought up in Parliament, but, though a Protestant clergyman accompanies each squadron to sea, the Catholics have been distinctly and emphatically informed that no priest will be allowed in the navy to minister to Irish sailors. This refusal was accompanied by a half threat of removing the naval training ship from Queenstown if Cardinal Logue and other Irish Bishops interfered with recruiting by pointing out to Catholics that it is their duty to keep from entering a service so perilous to their salvation. A CONTRAST. The citizens have made a mistake this year. They have had the weakness to break through what was some years ago announced as a final decision — i.e., to keep the chief magistracy in the hands of the Catholic and Home Rule party in the Corporation until such time as Belfast, the Northern capital, shall consent to give fair representation to the Catholics of that city. In Ulster Catholics far outnumber Protestants, their numbsr in Belfast is very large, yet the Ulster city has invariably refused to permit anything like a fair representation in its civic bxly and determinately resists the idea that a Catholic Lord Mayor shall ever fill the civic chair. They have had an atheist, this year they have a Jew, but rever will they have a Papist. It was not bigotry that prompted the action of the Dublin citizens when they declared some years ago that until the Catholics of Belfast obtained justice the rule in the Catholic capital should be to elect none but Catholics and Nationalists as Loid Mayors of Dublin. Either such a regulation should never have been made or it should have been rigidly adhered to. THE GUINNESS FAMILY AND ROYALTY. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught are now in Dublin and are the guests of Lord Iveagh (one of the Guinness family), who placed a country Beat at the disposal of the Commander of the Forces in Ireland until the renovation shall be completed of the official residence in what is known as the Old Men's Hospital in Kilmainham. This is a mansion to which is attached a port of military almshouse for a certain number of favored veterans, who are there furnished with uniform, rations, and lodging, but a grateful country stops the small pension to which each old soldier so cared for would be entitled if he lived in bis own home. Thus the great brewing family has once more come to the rescue of royalty by making the Duchess of Connaught at home in a pretty Dublin country house. THE POOR MAN BEARS THE BURDEN. Speaking of Guinness reminds me that there was a run on the Dnblin Custom House the week before last, such as has never been previously known. As a part of the South African war expenses are to be met by a tax on beer, spirits, and tea. an extraordinary rush to take stuff out of bond before the new duties should be levied took place during the three days previous to that upon which the new duty took effect. Duty at the old figure, to the amount of some hundreds of thousands of pounds, was paid in, and every procurable dray and van in the city kept up a continuous seriea of processions along the Custom House quays for days, while the Custom Housje officers were utterly unable to cope with the demands upon them, so that a vast deal of business remained undone at three o'clock on Saturday, the hour at which the old duty ceaced to run. To givfe an idea of what the increase of revenue will be from the increug of 3d per hogshead on beer and porter, it is stated that this suiu will mean a payment of £100,000 per annum by the Guinness firm

alone. Those whiskey and tea merchants who succeeded in getting large stocks out of bond in time, will realise fortunes, as it is the custom with dealers i.o charge the full increase to consumers on what they only paid the late duty upon ; thus it is the poor man who pays the war bill all round in the long run. I had to pay two pence additional for my pound of tea this morning, although I well knew the merchant took it out of bond a month ago. THE DKTEBMINATION OF THE IRISH PEOPLE Well, aroon 1 such things must be, as an old lady used to say to mp long ngo, and the hope that epringn eternal is once more cheering the Irish by the late union of all Nationalist parties for the common good. The majority have gen«rouely, magnanimously waived their rights and elected one of the minority, Mr. Jobn Bed* mond, chairman of the Irish Party. Let us hope the burst of glad enthusiasm that has welcomed the union and proved how onehearted is the Nation, may be but an earnest of the future. I thought it rather a good sign to hear a Unionist cay the other day that Mr. John Redmond ought to be shot. One thing is certain : no amount of royal patroDage, no amount of coercion, of overtaxation, of poverty, cf disunion amongst political men, no amount of any of these, which seem to be our ppecial prerogatives, will change the determination of the Irish to be and remain a Nation apart. THE REVIVAL OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE. One good sign of the times is that the movement, I may fay the various movements, for the revival of the Irish language as a spoken tongue, are doing good work. The language is now being taught in a number of schools, and 800 schoolmasters have applied to Government for recognition of the Irish language on a footing of equality wilh English in their schools ; also, that in all Irishspeaking districts, English may be taught through the medium of Irish. This common-sense demand, after having been sternly resisted by the Government for over 60 years, is at long laat about to be granted — at least, so we are led to believe. . MB.