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New Zealand Tablet, 21 March 1918, Page 17

"" “There were Those'whb still 1 thbiipt'That Irish' independence was a dream,, but they could give no argument in defence of that view except by admitting that British authority in . Ireland had no moral sanction and depended solely :on brute force,” said; Eoin Mac Neill at a Sinn Fein meeting in Mullingar. • Writers have not always sufficiently appreciated the benefits v which/mankind ; derived from the pacific influence of the Roman Pontiffs. In an age which valued no merit but that of arms, Europe would have been plunged in perpetual war had not Pope after Pope labored incessantly for the preservation or restoration of peace. They rebuked the passions and checked the extravagant pretensions of sovereigns. Their character, as the common fathers of Christians, gave their representatives a weight which no other mediator could claim; and their legates spared neither journey nor fatigue to reconcile the jarring interests of countries, and interpose the olive of peace between the swords of contending armies.”Lingard’s History of England, Vol. 11. chapter 2.