DELICIOUS PERSECUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 63, 8 April 1909, Page 4

DELICIOUS PERSECUTION.

I To the ftlitor. 'Sir, —James McKenmi's statement • lint Ireland is the only country "that iha» never resorted to persecution on the score of religion," savours of sophism. Ireland may not have persecuted, but the li. <_'. Irish certainly have done and even yet continue to do so. in Griesinger's "History of the Jesuits" mention is made of the terrible persecution which the Irish (incited bv the Jesuits) iiHlieted on tile heretics,'and yet J.M. 'states as though il were an incontestable fact that the Irish never persecuted for religions views. At the present day, everyone who visits Ireland soon becomes aware of the half-con-cealed hatred of the "black Protestants," which han been carefully instilled into the Irish It. (.'. mind—--it is easy to sec by whom. While I was stayin a certain county (own of Ireland, a Cardinal paid n visit, mid in his speech t« the faithful advised them to "obtain their rights bv force."

In that part of the country a labourer's wages are only Irani lis to 12s a week: and yet wlie'u there is one of sl'ccinl U. ('. missions. I„, has to give away from 3s to lis a week. It is not a case of nver-n-enerosity (although Irishmen are as a rule the most generous of mankind!): it is a ens.' of compulsory I'liymi'iit. When a counlrv is thus continually drained of money, who eau wonder at the success of Ihe'covert iiiicinpis to foment discontent and rebellion? Who can. wonder that the people leave an impoverished land, and emigrate to America. This result is presumable what is meant by ,1. M's. word ''cxleriiiiiiation."

"In the I'ai'i' of such historic facts." as the Pevoralioii ,d' (he Edict of .Vaiiles. Ilarlliolomew's Eve. (lie Massacres of the Alhigiiscs and the Vaudois, etc.. .1. M's charge of religious persecution comes with a certain grim humour.- Yours, etc.. C. URQUIIART. liawera, April 5.