ow down to Popery. And that is what Home Rule means. We
see the abject condition of the Papists, and we know their slavish
superstitions. The bulk of them are body and soul in the hands of the
priests, and that is the secret of their non-success in life. The
poorest among them are taxed to death by the Church. A fee must be
paid for christening, and unless you pay a stiff figure you won't have
a priest at your funeral. The poor Catholics are buried without any
religious service whatever. They are taken to the churchyard by their
friends and put in a hole, like a dog. Pay, pay, pay, from the cradle
to the grave. And when the priests wish to raise money, they dictate
how much each person is to give. They do not believe in free-will
offerings, otherwise their receipts would be very small indeed. There
you have one explanation of Papist poverty. Are we to put our necks
under the heels of a Parliament worked by Bishop Walsh of Dublin?
Never, as long as we can strike a blow for freedom. We look to England
at present. If England fails us, we shall look to ourselves. Our
fathers died to preserve us from King James and Popery, and we are not
going back to it at this time of day.

"English Home Rulers have actually taken up the cry of Equality, and
down with Protestant ascendency. Such foolish ignorance almost amounts
to crime. Where are the Roman Catholic disabilities? For two
generations the Papists have had absolute equality. Every office is
open to them on the judicial bench. There have been Roman Catholic
Lord Chancellors, and Lord Chief Justices. O'Laughlin, O'Hagan, Naish,
Pallas, Barry, O'Brien, Keogh, and many others are all Roman Catholic
judges. The Papists have an overwhelming preponderance in
Parliamentary representation. They are looked after in the matter of
education, whether elementary, intermediate, or University. The system
of the National Board was introduced to meet the objections of the
Roman Catholics. They objected to the use of the Bible. As you know
the Papists object very strongly to the Bible, and as it came out some
time since, before the Commissioners of Education, of four hundred
Maynooth students only one in forty had a Bible at all. Theological
students without a Bible! But each was compelled to have a copy of
some Jesuit writer.

"Where is the inequality? The Romanists have their own college, this
very Maynooth, entirely under the control of their own bishops, where
they educate the sons of sma