y moral obligation, when clashing with the interests of the
Church. They distinctly teach that every political question is a
question of morals, and that to vote against the priest's instructions
is a deadly sin. Such being a few of the claims advanced by the Irish
priesthood, let us see on what rests the hope of these extraordinary
demands being recognised. A.M. Sullivan, a Roman Catholic Nationalist
M.P., says:--"Of all Catholic nations or countries in the world--the
Tyrol alone excepted--Ireland is perhaps the most Papal, the most
ultramontane. In Ireland religious conviction--what may be called
active Catholicism--marks the population, enters into their daily life
and thought and action. The churches are crowded as well by men as by
women, and in every sacrament and ceremony of their religion
participation is extensive and earnest. Reverence for the sacerdotal
character is so deep and strong as to be called superstition by
observers who belong to a different faith; and devotion to the Pope,
attachment to the Roman See, is probably more intense in Ireland than
in any other part of the habitable globe, the Leonine city itself not
excluded." In other words, the Irish are more Roman than the Romans
themselves. Here we have on the one hand the claims of the Romish
priesthood, and on the other the disposition of the Irish people. But
as the alleged claims will to the majority of Englishmen appear
monstrous and incredible, it becomes necessary to prove that these
claims are actually made.

The fall of Parnell brought the clergy into striking prominence. The
powerful personality of the Irish leader, his great popularity, and
his determination to rule alone, had to some extent forced the Church
into the background. Parnell once removed, the Church at once aimed at
undivided rule, directing all her energies to this end mercilessly and
without scruple. Her instruments were worthy of the work. The modern
Irish priest is usually low-bred, vulgar, and ignorant. The priest of
Lever's novels, brimming over with animal spirits, full of _bonhomie_,
sparkling with wit and abounding with jovial good-nature, is nowhere
to be found. The men of the olden time were educated in France, and by
rubbing against the cultured professors of Douai or Saint Omer, had
acquired a polish, a breadth of view, a _savoir faire_, denied to the
illiterate hordes of Maynooth. The olden priest was loyal, just as
cultured Irishmen who have travelled, whether i