SUGGESTIVE ANXIETY.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3867, 21 May 1881, Page 4

SUGGESTIVE ANXIETY.

. Among the circumstances attendant on the present agitation in Ireland none is more remarkable than the great anxiety which prevails that the Pope should interfere on behalf of England. We need hardly allude, to the utterances of a thousand and one[ correspondents of the Press erery where, who, a«, for example, in the case of- a paragraph from the London correspondence of the South AnM*^MM&-J^fliatiu__^pubJial_4jcLber« the otherday, deliver the most extraordinary and'wild inventions on the subject—a subject concerning^ which it is quite impossiblethat they can be in any degree authorities, or possess inforraatioß not made public officially. But even among English statesmen themselves there is manifested a strong desire to see,the Pope come forward, as- a protector, and interpose t iri.B high authority between -their Government and the people, it is so b*dly displays a power to govern with equity and peace, ■ '^We find f the following for instance, lint-ihe columns!of _Che: Times :— •*The Bishop of Elphin.'-^Lbrd 5 Stanley 1 of') Alderley ■ has given ' notice, that qn_ Monday, the 14th instant, he will 5 . *call the attention of the House ©f Lords to the ebnefudin g paragraph of the pastorailetter of Dr Gillooly, the Bishop of Elphiri,, to hiis clergy, commnuicating to them the recent letter of the Pope to the Archbishop of IJfublin .—' While we express this confidence in. the religious and peaceful disposition of our, people, we feel it a duty to declare that should.-.the Government and Legislature fail to satisfy in the present Session of Parliament the just demands of the! cultivators of the soil, they^b'alfatMC^ee; forfeit all further claim oil restraining influences,,which, the hope, of remedial legislation , has hitherto induced a large section of the clergy to jexerciae in' their favo,ur;" and will ask the' Siscretary.qf, Slate for foreign Affairs wlietjier be has. brought or intends |.te bring this language under the notice,of the Holy'SteS "■ *; f Itjsfe jrdjbnt^tfieri thai much as the Protestint world condemns tlife fjower as arbitfar of Christendom, held bj thje Slope in-thelages of- fai|h, it still r tacitly recognises its justice and usefulness, and is anxious to see it renewed', or rather called lout and acknoV-, ledged whenever the heed seems to it' to arise:* It is further, suggestive, to find the Government of England, with all their boasted might aud grandeur, on the one hand appealing to the Popq for aid, and On, the oiher throwing themselves 1 upon, the ugly mercies of the Pope's poor rabid enemy, the Orangemen of the North, and of. the world in general. Meantime we learn on (he high authority of the Aurora in commenting with approbation on the reply of the Irish bishops.to the letter of His Holiness to Archbishop MpQabe—and subsequent to which -the pastoral of the Bishop of Ejphin was issued—that it is impossible for the Pope to mediate between the " oppressed Irish " and their rulers in the absence of a diplomatic agent accredited

by the British Government to the Vatican. In'conclusion, the meaning of the Pope's letter may best be understood by .a study of the sense in which the bishops and clergy throughout the world hare received it, and, for example, it may certainly be judged not to have been taken by them as condemnatory of the Land League when we find the Archbishop of Boston and his priests subscribe their names to an address to the clergy and the people af Ireland containing, amongst others, the following paragraphs :—" We are filled with wonder at the efficacy you have known how to infuse into an orderly, peaceful, and constitutional agitation for the revision of the iniquitous land laws in>posed upon yonr country by an alia* legislature, and we hope and pray that no resort to arbitrary power or the substitution of the methods of tyrants for the peaceful process of civil law will be able to .stifle your voice or paralyz* your action. . . . We solemnly declare j that if the British Parliament is unwilling; ' or unable to apply an efficient remedy to *'the eaueer that is eating away the life' ©f the nation,", it is the duty of England to remit the cure of the evil to the people of Ireland themselves. < . *. Following fn tbe footsteps of our Holy ~ Father. Pppe Leo X111.,-who has recently manifested bis deep concern foi> the temporal as Ml a* the etor_iai:j»«l_iaj of the <! people of Itel^, b y addressing; lh_W we,dee are that we are advocates '# piW! and civic order, and hold with St Thomas and other Catholic doeC Art the only laudable _ud .table order?* tkat r^ive 8 iSSwto^S* 0 *?»*•■ adjustment of conflictinis in.Me»ts?°U^nfc for. tbe perfect legality of the Land League, the decision of- Mr Charles Russell is quite sij%ient.—Tablet.