it means. But as time went on that alarm has
to a great extent subsided, not, as some will say, because the people
are in any degree reconciled to the idea, but purely and simply
because they see that the bill must perish when exposed to the light
of criticism. The people as a whole do not want the bill. The poorer
classes do not know in the least what it means, nor what all the
bother is about. They are told that they will be hugely benefited, but
nobody can tell them how. Of course they vote for Home Rule, because
in these parts the priest stands at the door of the polling booth and
tells them as they go in how they are to vote. He also questions them
as they come out, and they know beforehand that he will do so, and act
accordingly. They dare not tell him a lie, for fear of spiritual
trouble. They believe that the priest has their eternal future in his
hands, and this belief is encouraged by the well-known argument used
by the Roman Catholic clergy, a very familiar phrase in Ireland, "You
must do as I tell you, for _I_ am responsible. God will require your
soul of _me_ at the day of judgement!" What can the poor folks do?
Even the higher classes are not exempt from this superstitious fear.
They may be more or less freethinkers--freethinking is common among
educated Catholics who are yet compelled by custom to conform to the
outward observances of their faith--but yet, when the pinch comes,
they are influenced by the prepossessions of their childhood and
environments, and they mostly vote as they are told. They dread to
offend the priest, though not to the same extent as the poor
peasantry, who believe that confession of a wrong vote would entail
the refusal of extreme unction, and that this would mean untold and
endless torture in the world to come. And the priests preach politics
every Sunday. The people like it better than the old style of
Instruction. They call their sermons Instructions, you know, and they
instruct the people to some tune. No doubt they have a right to
persuade their flocks to follow a certain course. The temptation to
preach something which at once catches the people's attention and
furthers their own views is very great, and perhaps excusable. But is
their teaching designed or calculated to suit England? The English may
not understand the Irish question, but they may be sure that whatever
suits the Papal power does not suit them. The modern Irish priest is a
sworn foe to England. It cannot be ot