The Times' correspondent in Madrid, who has lately been unusually
accurate, states that the ill-feeling towards the priesthood is growing intense. The lower clergy in the cities of Spain have of late been greatly demoralised, or rather have continued immoral, while opinion as to the fitting morality for them has improved. The Pope and the higher clergy have endeavoured to effect improvement by rigid discipline, and the consequent resistance, of which the murder of the Bishop of Madrid by a priest out of work is only an extreme instance, has attracted public attention to the whole subject. It is believed the Cortes will interfere by sharpening the laws against " criminous clerks," and the Papacy is clearly in earnest ; but the evil is in Spain of old standing, having been denounced by Blanco White, and is aggravated by the fast that there are too many priests for benefices. The unemployed almost starve, take to lay work for a living, and frequently sink lower than ordinary laymen, while the pressure on the employed induces them to resort to low devices to increase their revenues. They are said to have introduced explosives into the candles offered on the altar of the Church of San Luis, in order to frighten the worshippers out of buying candles from laymen. The priests sell candles, and theirs do not explode.
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