m the success of the movement. 'Let us get the power,'
they say, 'never mind the money.' I have heard the remark made more
than once, and it represents the dominant feeling in the minds of
many. Rubbish about struggling for equal rights. Where are the
disabilities of Irish Catholics?

"Ascendency is their game. Would they be tolerant? Why ask such a
question? When was Roman Catholicism tolerant, and where? Is not the
whole system of Popery based on intolerance, on infallibility, on
strict exclusiveness? Let me give you a few local facts to show their
'tolerance.'

"In the old times the Monaghan Town Commissioners were a mixed body.
Catholics and Protestants met together in friendly converse, and the
voting went anyhow, both religions on both sides, according to each
man's opinion of the business. Nowadays, wherever in Ireland the two
sects are represented the thing is worked differently, and you may
know the voting beforehand by reference to the members' religion. We
are not troubled with this in Monaghan, and for the very best of
reasons--all the members but one are Roman Catholics, and the solitary
Protestant is a lawyer who has always been identified with them, and
has always managed their legal business. He is practically one of
themselves, having always acted with them.

"When the modern political agitation became rife, the Romans of
Monaghan, under the orders of their priests, at once ousted all
Protestants, except the one I have mentioned, who does not count, and
monopolised the Town Council ever since. They forgot something--Lord
Rossmore has a claim on the market-tolls and other similar payments
which amount to about three hundred pounds a year, but so long as the
Town Council was worked by a mixed body of Catholics and Protestants
he consented to forego this claim, and made the town a present of the
money, which was expended in various improvements. Three hundred a
year is a large sum in a small country town where labour is cheap, and
in fifty years this sum, carefully laid out in ornamental and sanitary
arrangements, quite changed the aspect of the place. When, however,
the priests came on the scene and determined to have things
exclusively in their own hands, Lord Rossmore did not quite see why he
should any longer give the money to the town. And let it be understood
that his agent had always been a prominent figure on the Monaghan Town
Council, which was very right, having regard to the three hundred
po