thing to do with the making of the will, was bound to regard it "as
proper and in accordance with the fitness of things that what had been
received from the poor should be given back to the poor."

I see no adequate answer to this contention of the Archbishop. But it
certainly goes to confirm the estimates given me by Sergeant Mahony of
Father M'Fadden's receipts at Gweedore, and the opinion expressed to me
by Lord Lucan as to the average returns of an average Catholic parish,
that the priest of Milford, a place hardly so considerable as Gweedore,
should have acquired so handsome a property in the exercise there of his
parochial functions.

One form in which the priests in many parts of Ireland collect dues is
certainly unknown to the practice of the Church elsewhere, I believe,
and it must tend to swell the incomes of the priests at the expense,
perhaps, of their legitimate influence. This is the custom of personal
collections by the priests. In many parishes the priest stands by the
church-door, or walks about the church--not with a bag in his hand, as
is sometimes done in France on great occasions when a _quele_ is made by
the _cure_ for some special object,--but with an open plate in which the
people put their offerings. I have heard of parishes in which the priest
sits by a table near the church-door, takes the offerings from the
parishioners as they pass, and comments freely upon the ratio of the
gift to the known or presumed financial ability of the giver.

We had some curious stories, too, from a gentleman present of the
relation of the priests in wild, out-of-the-way corners of Ireland to
the people, stories which take one back to days long before Lever. One,
for example, of a delightful and stalwart old parish priest of eighty,
upon whom an airy young patriot called to propose that he should accept
the presidency of a local Land League. The veteran, whose only idea of
the Land League was that it had used bad language about Cardinal Cullen,
no sooner caught the drift of the youth than he snatched up a huge
blackthorn, fell upon him, and "boycotted" him head-foremost out of a
window. Luckily it was on the ground floor.

Another strenuous spiritual shepherd came down during the distribution
of potato-seed to the little port in which it was going on, and took up
his station on board of the distributing ship. One of his parishioners,
having received his due quota, made his way back again unobserved on
board of t