or was it
intended that the services should be other than strictly evangelical.
The tent was erected solely to accommodate the great influx of
visitors, after the manner so familiar in England. Here was a test of
Papal toleration. The tent was on private ground, and if Papists did
not like it they could easily keep away, making a wry face and spitting
out the abomination as they passed, after their liberal custom. This,
however, was not enough. No sooner had the handbills been issued, than
a most scurrilous placard appeared, calculated to inflame the passions
of the ignorant, and to make them act after their kind. The Gospellers
were accused of an attempt to poach on the Papal preserves, and it was
mockingly stated that they had at last come to Christianise the
benighted Papists. The effect of this placard was soon evident. It
became known that the Roman Catholics of the district had determined
that they would allow no Gospel services in Bundoran. The police
authorities, who know all about Papist "tolerance," increased the small
village force to twenty-five men, but, as the result proved, these were
absolutely useless. A mob of more than a thousand pious ruffians
gathered early in the evening, and attacked in a brutal and merciless
manner every person they suspected of being on the way to the meeting.
The two Evangelists went to the tent under the escort of the
twenty-five policemen, but before they could commence the service the
apostles of toleration made a desperate rush on the congregation, most
of whom were struck with bludgeons and stones, knocked down, kicked,
and otherwise maltreated. The constabulary with great determination,
but with much difficulty, protected the two young clergymen, upon whom
a most venomous attack was made. The Protestants defended themselves
with umbrellas, walking-sticks, and the like, but being strongly
charged these proved of little avail against the wild onslaught of the
party of toleration. Well may the local paper say that "a regular panic
pervades the resident and visiting Protestant families."

Mr. Morley, replying to a question in the House, said the reports were
exaggerated. The hapless Irish Secretary, unable to meet this and
similar charges with denial, always relies on the plea of
"exaggeration." The statement given above is derived from
eye-witnesses of both creeds, and from an official source. One word as
to the plea of exaggeration.

When I had investigated the fifteen mo