ness of the so-called 'guaranties,' and enables us, your children, to realize the perils that environ you as visible Head of the Church.

"Most Holy Father, as representatives of an ancient Catholic nation, whose proudest boast is its historic fidelity to the Apostolic See, we tender to you our heartfelt homage and devotion; and give to you the pledge that in any measures for the protection of the personal safety and legitimate rights of your Holiness which may be deemed necessary, faithful Catholic Ireland desires to be associated."

The address was sent to his Eminence Cardinal Manning for presentation, accompanied by the following letter from the secretaries, Mr. A. M. Sullivan and Mr. A. H. Bellingham:

"MY LORD CARDINAL, We have the honor to forward to you, for presentation to our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., an address from the Catholic representatives of Ireland, called forth by the recent outrages in Rome. Many of our colleagues are, as is usual at this time of the year, absent just now from London, and much time would be lost in endeavoring to reach them. We feel so keenly the desire to speak out at once in the name of Ireland on this subject, that we have decided to forward the address forthwith, signed by those of our body who are in attendance in Parliament, asking your Eminence to confer on us the favor of forwarding it to Rome. We gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity of renewing for ourselves and for our country the expression of that profound reverence and affectionate regard which it has so often been to us a pleasure and a duty to testify towards your Eminence, whose words of wise counsel and tender sympathy are always greatly esteemed by the Irish people."

CHAPTER XVIII.

POPE LEO AND IRELAND.

HE condition of the Irish Catholics, who comprise

THE

over four-fifths of the whole population of Ireland, naturally attracted the attention of the Pope at this time. It is not necessary to enter here into any description of the state of Ireland in the years following the coronation of Leo XIII. Everybody is familiar with the story of that home-rule agitation which begun to assume definite form after the famine of 1879-80, and the general election of the latter year; and which, though it has not yet obtained the goal of its desires, is, nevertheless, morally certain of winning for the Irish people the inestimable boon of legislative autonomy. When the Land League first began its crusade against alien landlordism, England resorted to all sorts of dishonest methods to create the impression at Rome that the Irish Catholics were being tainted with heresy and false ideas. It was said that they were becoming perverts to the erroneous doctrines of socialism; that they refused to pay their just debts; that they were no longer disposed to obey their priests and bishops;

and that, in fact, unless some effective barrier were soon interposed, they would lose their faith altogether, and become lost to the Church.

Naturally such reports as these, which English landlords took good care to get forwarded to Rome, troubled Pope Leo not a little; and hence he summoned the bishops of Cashel, Emly, Limerick, Cloyne, Ross, and Kerry, to Rome, to consult with them concerning the situation in Ireland. The patriotic Dr. Croke, the Archbishop of Cashel, took upon himself the defence of the Irish agitators; and he assured the Holy Father that there was little or no truth in the alarming rumors that English agents had so sedulously spread in Rome. He pointed out that all the great reforms that had in the past been won in Ireland were carried by just such means as the Irish people were now employing to destroy alien landlordism and English misrule; and he assured his Holiness that there was not the slightest danger of the Irish people either losing their faith, or relaxing that attachment which had hitherto knit them so closely to the Holy See. "Two things," said the Holy Father, "weigh much upon my mind, and are all-important in this question. The first is the preservation of the Catholic faith among the Irish people. Upon this point," continued his Holiness, "I confess I have the less anxiety; for the past history of Ireland is a pledge for the future, and I have no fear that the Irish, who have preserved

their faith through centuries of misfortune, will ever abandon it. The second is the union of the bishops and clergy with their people, and the imperative necessity that no revolutionary principles should be introduced or allowed to take root among them." Dr. Croke and the other Irish prelates assured the Pope anew that there was not the slightest danger of a revolution occurring in Ireland. They pointed out to him, that the Irish people were now engaged in a peaceful and constitutional agitation for the acquisition of their rights; and, as they believed that by such an agitation they would eventually win, there was nothing to dread on the score of an armed uprising against the authorities, even if everybody was persuaded that the laws such authorities enforced were unjust and tyrannical ones. The Holy Father had several audiences with the Irish prelates during their stay in Rome; and he assured them that his sympathies and good wishes went out to Ireland, to the fidelity of whose people to the faith and the Apostolic See he bore willing and eloquent testimony. Later on, the Pope again called the Irish bishops to Rome, for consultation with them on the Irish situation; but of that, more in its proper place. Early in 1881, Cardinal McCabe, Archbishop of Dublin, since deceased, communicated to his clergy the text of a most important letter addressed to him on the 3d of January by the Holy Father. The archbishop asks, "In what terms

does the Holy Father address himself to us? An attempt may be made to distort his words, and to make it appear that the Holy See is hostile to the demand of the country for the repeal of harsh laws, which have brought misery and crime amongst us for long generations. Is this the object of the letter of the Holy Father? Most certainly not. He knows the injuries inflicted on our people by the present land code, and he prays that these injuries may be speedily redressed by a change in the laws from which they flow; but whilst he blesses our determination to obtain justice for an oppressed tenantry, there are in the agitation, as carried on, things which he cannot approve. No better exponent of the Holy's Father's views can be had than the Holy Father himself, who draws a wide distinction between the end aimed at, and some of the means employed to achieve that end." And then the archbishop tells how, in his audience with the Pope, "his Holiness did not in any way disapprove of the people seeking by legitimate and constitutional means the redress of their grievances; but he said that 'in the present agitation, as it is carried on, there are certain things done which I cannot approve of.' The people, he said, should be encouraged in doing what is right, but they should be duly impressed with the duty of keeping always within the bounds of law and religion." The words of the last paragraph in the archbishop's letter are perhaps the most vitally im