'SPOILS TO THE VICTORS'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 35, 1 September 1904, Page 4

'SPOILS TO THE VICTORS'

HOW CATHOLICS ARE BOYCOTTED IN IRELAND

Owing to the pressure on our space in our issues of August 18 and 25, consequent on the publication of lengthy descriptive letters from his Grace the Archbishop of Wellington, and other interesting matter, we were unable to publisji the highly instructive paper, read at the meeting of the Maynooth Union by the Very Rev. Dr. Hogan, under the title of ' The attitude of Irish Protestants towards their Catholic countrymen.' The revelations made by Dr. Hogan regarding the complete and systematic manner in which our co-religionists are excluded from the Government service came as a surprise even to those who thought they were fully conversant with the extent to which the boycott was carried. After quoting from the letters of Edmund Burke. on the rights of all classes of citizens, without distinction of creed, to a sWare in the public offices of the State/ Dr. Hogan goes on to say . ' Whilst the King must be a Protesitant what need is there that his representative in this Catholic country should be a Protestant ? Not only, however, miust

The King's Deputy be a Protestant,

but when ho goes to England for a holiday ar for business the Lords Justices who replace him must be Protesta|ntts. Catholic judges, no matter how loyal and how distinguished, are disqualified on account of their faith. Then ttbe Lord Lieutenant is assisted in the governemnt of the country by a Privy Council which consists of 60 members. Of these over 50 are Protestants and only 7 Catholics. Besides the £20,000 a year which the Lond Lieutenant receives from Parliament, his household is maintained at the public expense, and he thus gets an opportunity of surrounding himself by thirty or forty gentlemen who draw salaries according to their rank and labors. From this charmed circle

Catholics, as a Rule, aore Excluded.

Now and again a few are to be found, but there are nqt more than three or four out of thirty or forty. Nearly the same proportion is observed in the Chief Secretary's office. The Chief Secret/ary, of course, himself is invariably a Protestant, and of the officials who work directly under him the proportion waulld probably be aboub five or six Protestants to one Catholic. If you take the trouble to look into the Record Office, the State Paper Department, the office of the Treasury Remembrancer, or Deputy Paymaster, yo,u find everything worth having in the hands of the dominant party. In the Local Government Board, of the three principal officials, secretary, aad law adviser, only one is a Catholic ; and in the long roll of its inspectors, medical o.fficerfe 1 , engineers, auditors, and even clerks, the principle of ascendancy in its most drastic form is maintained. Some years ago two of the heads of ihis Board and the law advisers were Catholics. All these except one have how been replaced by Protestants. In the Board of Works the three heads are Protestants. The solitary Catholic, Mr. Richaird O'Shaughnessy, who recently retired, has been replaced by a Protestant ; and in the list of surveyors, land inspectors, draughtsmen, accountants, and so fortn, the number of Catjholics can be very easily counted. In a return made to Parliament on the 4th of February last, at the request of the late Mr. M'G'overn, the list ofi the officials; (connected with the Department of Agriculture is given, with the salaries which they receive. Some slight changes may have taken place since then ; but they cannot be of much importance. Now, looking over this interesting return, I find that at the head of the department there are five official's with salaries ranging from £850 a year

to £1350, together with other allowances which considerably, enhance the value of the position. Out of these five officials

There is Only One Catholic, and tflie appointment of that single Catholic has provoked a storm of bigotry and intolerance, the like of wihiieh we have not witnessed in this country for many a day. Just think for a moment of what has happened. The majority of the Irish people bend 7fl or 80 memibers of Parliament to represent them in the British House of Commons. Governments come and go, British parties change sides, and enjoy in their tuijn the poweir, the patronage, and the emoluments of office. The Irisjh representatives alone remain always in opposition. For them there is no personal prize to be won in the political battlefield, no reward except the welfare and liberty of their country. In pursuit of this tlhey have adapted the line of action they believe to be most effective, the policy from which no bribe can draw them away, no offer of personal advantage can seduce them. Well, one of these men, after years of faithful service a.nd for reasons perfectly honorable to himself, retires from Parliamentary life and devotes himself to his private business, as he was perfectly entitled to do. He has gained an expert knowledge of the machinery by which agriculture is promoted in several of the most progressive countries in Europe. He has every qualification necessary to fit him for the direction of an institutiofn established for a similar purpose in Ireland. But because he shares the political views of four-fifths of his countrymen— still more, because he is a Catholic— the atmosphere has 'been made to ring with denunciations of all concerned in his appointment ; and the man directly responsible for it has been hounded out of political life by the party to which he himself belongs.

Nothing Could be More Disgraceful,

notlhilng more mean than this whole affair ; and riothing, I beliewe, shows more plainly to Catholics the measure of what they may expect in the future from the band of ccnspira tots who have captured the government of their country. Passing on, however, from the general staff to the various branches of the Department, I find at the head of the Agricultural Branch three Protestant gentlemen, with salaries of £954 7s 6d, £620, and £365 respectively, all provided with first-class railway a*id other expenses. At the head of the Technical Instruction Branch, I find six gentlemen having salaries from £315 to £700 a year, with the usual railway and hotel allowances. They are, I understand, all Protestants. At the head of the Fisheries Branch I find a Protostant clergyman, with a salary of £900 a year, with railway fare and other expenses. Tftis whole branch, v/ith eight or nine officials, all well paid, seems to be an almoist exclusive Protestant monopoly. In the Veterinary Branch the chief inspector, with £700 a year, and the two travelling inspectors at the head of the list, with £440 and £260 a year, wear the favorite colors, I am told, whilst a few clerks and messengers are Catholics. At the head of the Science and Art Museum, with a salary of £742 10s, is Lieutenant-Colo-nel Plu-nkett, whose sympathies are well known. In the National Library of Ireland the librarian, with £550 a yaar, and the ' three assistant librarians, with £237, £22.0, and £200 a year, j All Belong to the Dominant Creed. Among the attendants, paid at the rate of 7£d ?n hour, there are, I believe, some Catholics ; but three and a half millions of Irish Catholics could not furnish even as assistant librarian to the National Library of Ireland. The keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens, witli £400 a year and other allowances, is a Protestant; and neariy all the officials of the Metropolitan School of Art, with salaries from £500 a yeax to £145, are of the same denomination. Another institution tha> is now under the Department of Agriculture is the College of Science. In this institution there are eleven rrofessoirs, three of whom are in the enjoyment of £750 a year each, with railway and other allowances ; four have £600 a year each, two have £400 a year each, and two have £350. Out of the whole eleven there is not, I believe, a single Catholic. Amongst three-fourths* of the Irish people you cannot get as much as a Professor of Chemistry or a Professor of Mathematics. Turning away now from these Government Boards and Departments, which are far from being exhausted, let u& direct our attention for a moment to the

Great Professions of Law and Medicine.

In the legal profession you had not long ago all Trish Catholic Judge in the Court of Appeal of the House of Lord's. He has now been replaced by an Englishman and a Protestant. In 18,80 the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Chief Baron, and about half the judges in the Higher Courts were Catholics. Now, out of sixteen only three remain Catholics. Out

of fdur .Recorders only one is a Catholic. Out of twenty-two County Court Judges only seven are Catholics'. Catholic Louth, Catholic Donegal, Catholic Tipperary, Catholic Kerry, and practically the whole province of Connaught, the most Catholic province in the whpl© world, must, of necessity, have the law laid down for them by Protestant judges, whose mo/ral worth and legal acquirements Catholic barristers could not be expected to approach. Out of forty-four Benchers of the King's Inns only nine are Catholics>. In the Land Commission, out of three Estate Commissioners only one is a Catholic. Out of six Legal Commissioners only iwo are Catholics. According to the return made to Parliament in 1902 at the request of Mr. MacVeagh, M.P., out of 63 resident magistrates there are 49 Protestants and only\ 19 Catholics. Out of six police inspectors promol|qd to be resident magistrates by the present Government not a single one is a Catholic. Out of 1272 justices of the peace there are l>ol4 Protestants alnd 251 Catholics. No information could be obtained as to the religious belief, of court officials, taxing masters, leceivers, accountants, registrars, and so forth. Religion is never inquired into when making these appointments. Why should it ? What is the necessity when the information is supplied gratis and through

The Most Reliable Channels

I should not forget to mention that in the Court of Alpfleal, where cases of the greatest delicacy and of the utmost practical importance to Catholics are decided, there is not a single Catholic Judge. How the heavens would resound if the case were reversed ; or rather, il the small minority of Protestants in Ireland had no representative in the highest Court of Appeal »n the land. Then all the law officers of the Crown, as far back as the eye can reach, are of the dominant creed. At tiheir head you have an Attorney-General and a Solteitor-General, both of them remarkable for their hostility to Catholics, and both of them ready to ttep on to the Bench to administer justice to people whose interests they have hitherto been trampling under iheir feet. After them come the Sergeants-at-Law, the Crown Prosecutors, arid Crown Counsel, and nowhere do you see any grounds to hope that things will not go from bad to worse as the years go by. The most distinguished Irish lawyer of his day (The MacDermot) was allowed to go down to' his grave without the reward which was his due, and tiie people responsible for his exclusion come forward to lecture us on T.oleration arid fair play. In the meUical profession the two great institutions wihidi have been empowered by statute to examine and grant dijplomasi — the Royal College of Physicians arid the Royal College of Surgeons— are both

Absolutely Dominated by Proijestants.

In the case of the College of Physicians the Charter has been rather cleveHy grafted on to an old foundation of Sir Patrick Dun, atod the spirit of the pious founder can be judged from the fact that when Henry Gtrattan in the old Irish Parliament asked that at least Ihe chairs of anatomy, cftemistry, and botany in Trinity College should be thrown open to Catholics he was met with the objection that tfliese chairs had been fc)s:iivately founded by Sir Patrick Dun on the express) ootoldi'tion that they should never be occupied by Catholics./ Such was the spirit of the real fcMnder of the Royal College of Physicians ; and you can judge ap to whetiher that spirit has been obseuved, notwithstanding the charter which this institution has received from the State and the vast amount of money it has received from Catholics for diplomas and otherwise. I.t would be almost a waste of time to inquire what footing Catholics have got in it. They have no footing proportionate either io their numbers, ttheir education, or their abilities. Some of the most distinguished Catholic doctors in Dublin have been blackballed for its fellowship. Out of 65 of its Fellows 1 only 11 are Catholics. Out of 44 appointments made by them this year 38 went to Protestants and six to Catholics. The Various boards and committees are so manned that Catholics can be kept in perpetual subjection, if they can no longer be excluded according to the wish of the pious founder. The time is coming, however, I believe, when these gentlemen will either have to do justice to Catholics or to see iflieir charter torn away from Sir Patrick Dun and his pious foundation.

The College of Surgeons,

whfoh got large grants of .public money even so far back as the day:, of the Napoleonic wars, is, apparently, as complete a monopoly as the College of Physicians. It is governed by a council, consisting of 21 members, of whom four are Catholics. Out of 15 professors in the college only one is a Catholic ; and out of 24 examiners' four are Oatholids. In addition to the money contributed by Parliament, this institution draws large sums fr.ora Catholics in fees for lectures and for diplomas, and the return it makes is to keep Catholics almost at the

door. But all the monopolies of which I have been speaking sink into significance in comparison with the monopoly of higher education. Here you have the seat of all the injustice, the fountain head of all the funny, done to Iris.h Catholics in every walk of life. Firstf of all, they have Trinity College, with upwards) pf £60,j0100 a year and the privilege of sending two members to Parliament to protect tiheir interests and defend them when in danger**. Then they have the Queen's Colleges, witih £30,000 arid various grants of public money made^to them from time to time. Even in Cork and Gal way the two institutions w)hich were intended to meet the needs of a Catholic population are 'dominated by Protestants. They have the College of Science, of whiah I spoke a short time ago. They have the two medical colleges. They rule all the higher technical schools, iflhe museums ?nd libraries. They have their share of the Royal University and its endowments, such as they are ; and they think that the mas® of the Irish people "ought to be satisfied with what remains of it. The great national institution which is offered

In Mockery to Irish Catholics for their education is now presided over l>y a layman who publicly declared in a speech delivered in Dublijn on the il2th of November, 1900, that everyone should sympathise with the aspiration ' to baring the Irisn nation, particularly the Celtic part of it, over %o the Church of Ireland.' And he notified to all Catholics who wished to change their religion that ' there was a Church ready to receive them, a Chtfrch with an ancient history aad an episcopal form of government, a Church which would guarantee to them the fullest liberty of free thought— a Church, i;n fine, in which they could find rest, and meet with sympathy in all their troubles.' It is to an institution presided over, by, such a man, who entirely nnd woirthily represent® its spirit, that Irish Catholic oarente are asked to send their sons. Catholic farmers, Catholic shopkeepers, Catholic professional men scattered over all the piaorishes and districts of ilreland are made to feel alt this injustice, flat only in their pockets, but in thousands of other ways besides. They send up to Dublin tiheta: sons whom they want to make barristers, doctors, solicitors, journalists, civil servants. These yo,*ig men have to live as best they can in lodgings about town, without any of the -comforts or any. of the social or intellectual advantages of a residential college, whilst their young Protestant neighbors, whom they; left behind in the Intermediate contesits, are cheaply; a|nfd comfortably ensconced at their expense in Trinity, Coltejge. They, however, can go if they wish to ' Trinity College, and they will have the satiefaction of finding there at the head of the institution to welcome them when t|hey arrive, and to watch over them whilst Ihey. stay, a man who has publicly notified to themi and all others whom it may concern that 'if they iwish to chaiTga their religion, to emancipate themselves from the yoke of <the Catholic Church, there is a Church ready to receive them, a Church with an aaicient history and an episcopal form of government, a Cdvurch which would guarantee to them the fullest liberty of free thought— a Chtfrch, in fine, in which they cotuld find rest and meet witlh sympathy in all their troubles.' I have no time here to deal with The Monopolies of Railways, Banks, and other public concerns, though these hstfve also got privileges from the State which entitle Catholics to representation in them independently altogether of + ,he money they have invested and the advantages derived from their custom. The momopolies here, however, have already been exp.osed to some extent by the Dublin ' Leader,' although the greatest of them all, the Bank of Ireland, which is the Government Bank, having lender its control the balances of the pub* lie money, which belongs to all classes, and having all sorts of advaht|agss besides deritved from its connection with the Government, has hitherto recieved but little attention. Inquiries as to religion in all these rnfctifcutioris ia to Catholics an uncongenial, and, I might almost say, lam sure a repulsive task. But we nave been driven to it by

The Scandal of Injustice

and driven to it against our will. Before I conclude this investigation,, however, I should like tb say a word or two about the Protestant Church itself. Here we find that, as a result of the arrangement made at me time of Disestablishment, the Representative Church Body was left with public money to the extent of £4,0£6,156 8s Id in its trefasury. They got, moreover, their churches and schoolho'uses rent free. They got theur glebes amd all ecclesiastical residences at 10 years* purdhiase. They have since added to 'their fund £4,.00i0,000, contributed directly, no doubt, by members of their own Churdh, but indirectly, to a very great ex>tent, by the toiling Catholics who have produced it. Thert the Presbyterians got £750,000 ; aiia whilstl the

kpascopahan clergy have their Divinity school specially prodded for them in Trinity College, the Presbyterians Jape also got a university to accommodate itself to their theological school. As a set of! against all this whiohi easily amounts to £10,000,000 or £12,00,0,000, you have about a third of a million granted to this disestablished college, the only subsidy that has ever been given to the Church of the vast majority of the people

A Further Exposure

Ah interesting supplement to the Rev. Father Hogan's exposure of Protestant monopoly and Catholic exclusion m Ireland (.says the ' Dublin Freeman ' or July 2) is to be fo,und in the fate of the Protestants and Catholics transferred to the Veterinary staff of the Agricultural Department. Of the ten Protestants', every one of them got promotion and substantial increase of salary on being transferred to Sir H. Plunkett's department. -There were seven Catiholics similarly transferred. Two got slight promotion, with a total rise of £65 a year in their combined salaries. Tihe re. mainwig rive Catholics, after service of over ten years, got nominal promotion and had their salaries reduced. The following Protestant officials were transferred from the Veterinary Department to the Agricultural Department :—

P. M'lvor, T. Fennelly, E. Tierney, J. Harte, J. Cox. These Catholics, after repeated application's for fair promotion, were made nominally ' permanent,' and their salaries were reduced from £92 to &90 a year.

R. Canirell W. Iledley . . D. S. Prentice R. Duncan ... H. Heald ... W. D'Alton F. Henry . . ,W. Duncan ... W. Odbert ... H. Odbert ... Salary at time of tra/nsfer. £ 700 600 300 300 200 210 160 100 90 90 : J Raise to £ 800 700 450 400 300 350 200 140 130 130 Catholics. J. Mahoney M. Boyle ... Catholics 200 115 ; Reduced in Salary : 250 130

Protestant's.