this, even the dull and sluggish brain of
the brutal Saxon could have understood their action. They uttered no
single word of condemnation. An eminent Catholic, a clever
professional man, who reveres the faith in which he was bred, but
holds its priesthood in lowest contempt, said to me:--"You cannot find
a word of condemnation uttered by any Bishop during the whole period
when brutal murders were of daily occurrence. I give you your best. I
would stake anything on my statement. I have challenged people over
and over again, but nobody has ever been able to produce a syllable of
censure, of warning, of reprobation. The Bishops were strangely
unanimous in their silence."

But when the Irish Masons try to provide for the orphans of their
brethren the Archbishop's back is up at once; for Masons have secrets
which they may not tell even to priests; and therefore Dr. Walsh
declares that whosoever gives sixpence to this cause of charity, or
associates with its promoters, shall be cast into hell, there to abide
in torture everlastingly--unless previously whitewashed by himself in
person. And as I have clearly shown, the influence of Archbishop Walsh
and his kind is at this moment supremely powerful in matters affecting
the prestige and integrity of England and her people. Wherefore I do
not wonder at the saying of an earnest Irishman of famous name, a
baronet of long descent, whom I saw yesterday--

"When I see how the thing is being worked, and when, as a Catholic, I
recognise the progress and character of the Church policy, and when I
see England walking so stupidly into the trap, I don't know what to
do--whether to swear, or to go out and be sick."

Moycullen (Connemara), May 23rd.

No. 26.--THE CONNEMARA RAILWAY.

Mr. Balfour's railway from Galway to Clifden will be exactly fifty
miles long, and will run through Crooniffe, Moycullen, Ross,
Oughterard, and the wildest and most desolate parts of Connemara. The
line has been in contemplation for thirty years at least, but the
strong suit of its Irish projectors was talking, not doing, and the
project might have remained under discussion until the crack of doom
but for Mr. Balfour's energy and administrative power. The Irish
patriots had no money, or they would not invest any. The Galway
authorities would not authorise a county rate. Anybody who chose might
make the line, but the local "powers that be" refused to spend a
single penny on an enterprise which would