otation:--"Cette these grossiere et fanatique ne vaut
l'honneur d'un devellopment ni d'une discussion: contentons nous de
remarquer comme il est habile et simple de rejeter sur Rome la
responsabilite des malheurs d'Erin en disculpant ainsi et l'Angleterre
et la colonie anglaise en Irlande!"

The energy of the Irish priesthood in the advocacy of temperance--an
energy which in a climate like that of Ireland can never be excessive;
their social work in the encouragement of the industrial revival by the
starting of agricultural and co-operative societies, and, most of all at
this time, of the Industrial Development Association; their
whole-hearted assistance in the work of the Gaelic League, and their aid
in the discouragement of emigration--all these, apart from their
spiritual labours, are factors which have increased their claims to the
affection of the people to whom they minister and the respect of their
non-Catholic fellow-countrymen. They have discouraged violence, and the
weight of their Church has always been directed against secret
societies, and if their power has been great it is only because they
have been in full sympathy with their flocks. In 1848 the clergy made
such efforts to check the excesses of the abortive insurrection of that
year that Lord Clarendon, the Viceroy, wrote to Lord John Russell to
tell him that something must be done for the clergy, but the bigotry of
the English and Scottish people stood in the way. The No Rent Manifesto
of 1881 fell flat owing to the ecclesiastical condemnation which it
incurred on the ground that it involved repudiation of debts. Every
article in the Press of Europe and America on the problem of "race
suicide" contained a well-deserved tribute to the moral influence of the
Irish clergy on their flocks in this direction, and the figures of
illegitimacy show the same results of their inculcation of sexual
morality. In 1904 there were 3.9 per cent. of such births in England and
Wales, in Scotland 6.46, and in Ireland 2.5. The highest rate in
Ireland--3.4 in Ulster--is almost the same as the lowest in Scotland--in
Dumbartonshire--and the contrast between the Scottish maximum of 14.3 in
Kincardine and the Irish minimum of .7 in Connacht needs no comment.

With regard to ecclesiasticism in the lower branches of education, while
convinced that popular control over the secular branches, leaving the
religious branches of such education completely in the hands of the
clergy, is