eadford does not contain many large houses. It was
that in which lived Father Giles, the old parish priest of Tuam;--and
with Father Giles lived his curate, that Father Brosnan of whom
mention has above been made.

CHAPTER III.

FATHER BROSNAN.

There has come a change among the priests in Ireland during the last
fifty years, as has been natural. Among whom has there not come a
change in half a century? In England, statesmen are different, and
parsons, and judges, and peers. When an entire country has been left
unmoved by the outside world, so as to seem to have been left asleep
while others have been awake, the different classes will seem to
be the same at the end of every half century. A village lawyer in
Spain will be as was a village lawyer fifty years ago. But a parish
priest in Ireland will be an altered personage, because the country
generally has not been sleeping.

There used to be two distinct sorts of priests; of whom the elder,
who had probably been abroad, was the better educated; whereas the
younger, who was home-nurtured, had less to say for himself on
general topics. He was generally the more zealous in his religious
duties, but the elder was the better read in doctrinal theology. As
to the political question of the day, they were both apt to be on the
list against the Government, though not so with such violence as to
make themselves often obnoxious to the laws. It was natural that they
should be opposed to the Government, as long as the Protestant Church
claimed an ascendency over them. But their feelings and aspirations
were based then on their religious opinions. Now a set of men has
risen up, with whom opposition to the rulers of the country is
connected chiefly with political ideas. A dream of Home Rule has made
them what they are, and thus they have been roused into waking life,
by the American spirit, which has been imported into the country.
There is still the old difference between the elder and the younger
priests. The parish priest is not so frequently opposed to the law,
as is his curate. The parish priest is willing that the landlord
shall receive his rents, is not at least anxious, that he shall
be dispossessed of his land. But the curate has ideas of peasant
proprietors; is very hot for Home Rule, is less obedient to the
authority of the bishops than he was of yore, and thinks more of the
political, and less of the religious state of his country.

This variance of feeling m