he next world were
reckoned shady. The priest was enjoying himself in some festivity, and
the man died before his salvation arrived. A relative declared he
would tell the bishop. The priest reassured him with a scrap of paper,
whereon were written these words, signed by himself, 'Saint Peter.
Admit bearer.' 'Stick that in the dead man's fist,' said he. The man
went away delighted. These are the intelligent voters whose influence
is now paramount in the Parliament of England. It is by these poor
untutored savages, manipulated by their priests, that the British
Empire is now worked. The semi-civilised peasants of Connaught, with
the ignorant herds of Leinster and Munster, at the bidding of their
clergy have completely stopped the course of legislation, and left the
long-suffering and industrious working men of England and Scotland to
wait indefinitely for all the good things they want. The cry is,
Ireland stops the way. Why doesn't England kick it out of the way?

"Turn about is fair play. Let England have a turn now. Fair play is a
jewel, and Ireland has fair play. Ireland has privileges of which
neither England nor Scotland can boast. The Protestants of Ireland are
everywhere prosperous and content. The Catholics of Ireland are
everywhere impoverished and discontented. Wherever you go you find
this an invariable rule. The two sects may hold their farms from the
same landlord, on precisely similar terms, and you will find that the
Protestants pay their rent, and get on, while the Catholics don't pay,
and go from bad to worse."

"Is this extraordinary difference the result of British rule?"

Many a time I have asked Catholics this question. They cannot explain
the marked difference on the ground of alien government, as both are
subject to the same. They will say, 'Oh, Protestants are always well
off,' as if the thing were a matter of course, and must be looked upon
as inevitable. But why? I ask. That they can never tell.

Stand on a big hill near Tipperary and you will see four Roman
Catholic churches of modern build, costing nearly a hundred thousand
pounds. Father Humphreys will tell you how the money was raised, will
show you over Tipperary Cathedral, and will let you see the pig-styes
in which the people are housed. That is the man of God who wrote to
the papers and complained that it had been reported that the Catholic
clergy of Tipperary had done all they could to stop boycotting. Father
Humphreys said:--"I prot