which
he had intruded was threatened by Colonel Dopping with expulsion.
"Dare to touch my consecrated body," said the "shaved labourer." "Your
consecrated body be hanged!" said the Colonel, and out went Father
McFadden. Father Fay, of Summerhill, said in a sermon delivered at
Dangan:--"You must not look upon me as a mere man! The priest is the
ambassador of Jesus Christ, and not like other ambassadors either. He
carries his Lord and master about with him, and when the priest is
with the people, Almighty God is with them!" Father Fagan, of
Kildalkey, was so vexed with the refusal of John Murtagh to vote
according to clerical instructions that he said:--"May the landlords
come and hunt the whole of ye to hell's blazes." Murtagh said, "Ye
wish yer neighbour well, Sorr!" The man of God threatened to kick poor
Murtagh into the ditch, to which the erring parishioner replied that
in that case he would kick the good shepherd like a puppy. "Ah," said
Father Fagan, "you ruffian, you'll want me at the Last Day," and
refused to hear his wife's confession. The woman was dying, the
husband had been for the priest, and on the way to what proved a
death-bed, Father Fagan improved the shining hour by trying to nobble
a straying vote. The clergy make the most of their opportunities. At
Boardmills Father Skelly spread out a ballot paper on the altar at
Sunday service. Having described the situation of the names, he
pointed out where they were to make the cross. He then went on with
the mass. He thought of something else! Some of them, he hinted, were
pledged to the other side. They could shout for this candidate, but
when they went to vote they must "wink the other eye," as advised by
the music-hall song. Colonel Nolan, M.P., when canvasing at Headford,
was violently assaulted by a priest, who cut open the Parnellite head
with a stout blackthorn. Like a good Catholic, the Colonel would fain
have endured this clerical argument; but the police authorities
insisted on the matter seeing the light.

Clerical domination and the means by which it is attained are
therefore proven by undeniable evidence. The Papal hierarchy and their
subordinates are resolved to be supreme. _Aut Caesar, aut nullus._ And
it is a striking fact that by none is this doctrine so strongly
deprecated, so bitterly resented, as by the educated and enlightened
portion of Roman Catholic Ireland. _Their_ aspirations are all on the
side of toleration, harmony and peaceful pro