IRELAND. [From the Times Correspondent.] THE ULTRAMONTANE PARTY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 719, 23 June 1852, Page 3

IRELAND. [From the Times Correspondent.] THE ULTRAMONTANE PARTY.

Dublin, February 12. — The facts mentioned in the following passage, extracted from the Evening Mail have been the subject of general conversation here for several days past, but they appear, to be of so dubious a character that few were to be found who could place implicit reliance upon all the circumstances in connexion with these curious revelations. There is now, it would seeic, an end of any doubts or surmises which might be entertained by the sceptical ; and such being the new position of the education question, it only remains to congratulate the friends of enlightenment upon the result of the long struggle which it is to ,be hoped has been thus brought to a final issue :—: — "If any dependence (says the Mail) may be placed on the steadfastness or integrity of the power that reigns at Rome, it would scarcely be possible to oven ate the importance of the. fact timidly hinted at in the following announcement of the Castle paper of last night : — ' We have learned, with sincere gratification, that a communication has reached Archbishop Murray, bearing the sign manual of the Pope, and couched in the kindest and mos.t affectionate language. If our information be correct, and we have no reason whatever to doub.t its accuracy, his Holiness has intimated his cordial approval of the course pursued by the Archbishop in the ecclesiastical administration of his diocese, especially in regard to the abstineuce of his clergy from political agitation.' We are in a position to state that the autograph of '.the Holy Father' was much more express than the above account represents it, for Infallibility very frankly confesses that it has been deceived and imposed upon with regard to the chief topics of religious commotion which now agitate Ireland, but is now thoroughly satisfied that Dr. Murray and the moderate portion »of the Romish hierarchy had taken the true and just view of those questions." In addition to the above, it is reported that the Cullen and M'Hale parties had, for some time previous to the receipt of this Papal letter, lost ground at Rome ; that the confidence of the Propaganda in the Primate of their own nomination had been much weakened by the course of events subsequent to his arrival in Ireland ; and that, in fact, the mission for which he' had been especially chosen, namely, — the Catholicising of Ireland, had been a marked and total failure. The perpetual reference by Archbishops Cullen and M'Hale in their published addresses and pastorals to the progress of the reformation in the West of, Ire-, land has not, it is believed, been productive of any good effect upon the mind of the Sovereign Pontiff, and has, moreover, created considerable "surprise and dissatisfaction* in the councils of the Sacred College. The Ultramontanes are completely cast down by these

untoward events, and a visible coolness has, for many reasons, irrespective of this last blow, sprung up between the Primate and" his Grace " of Tuara, the more remote cause for which is* assigned ' to the contrary views maintained by the two contending prelates with regard to the line of policy which has been taken by the Catholic Defence Association towards carrying out the objects for which that body had been called into existence. The truth is, that whatever may be the backslidings of Dr. M'Hale, as a politician, he is, at all events, " Irish " and " national," and so far contrasts favourably with the man whose political educa-> tion has been, limited to the knowledge which he has acquired by a long residence within the cloisters of an Italian convent.