SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.1 The Sorrows of Ireland. By "Pat." (West Strand Publishing Company. 1s. net.)—This pamphlet deals, as may be supposed, with highly controversial matter, and is of a kind which the reviewer is disposed to leave alone altogether. Short of this, he must walk as safely as he can. Here is a quotation from Bishop O'Dwyer :—" Almost all secular education in Ireland is in the hands of the clergy. The clergy that teach have never received a true education. There are no laymen competent to teach at all [compare the complaint that the proportion of Roman Catholic Judges is so small]. The clergy come out of Maynooth absolutely deficient in all classical education and in all
scientific and mathematical education They are deficient in a something which cultivates a sense of honour and of right judgment with regard to the affairs of life." Then comes "Pat's" comment : " That is what Maynooth has done with the £2,000,000—what will Dr. O'Dwyer's Maynooth priest do with a Catholic University' ?" So much for education. Now for a story of the land. "C. C." was a widow holding a small farm. She could not work herself ; she could not hire labour. A: prosperous neighbour, " M. W.," lent her money, which she could not repay. She was evicted. "M. W." took up the land, ready to give it up if the widow's friends could make things right for her. Meanwhile he offered her as much land as she could manage, the free use of the house, and reckoned no interest on the loan. The local priest denounced him ; he was a Roman Catholic and a Nationalist. He was summoned before a League Court. " I want my own back," he said. "If you will subscribe I will give as much as any one." The Court refused. An M.P. denounced him again, and he was nearly drowned by the people. The League put up a but for the widow, where she would probably have been starved if she had not been burnt to death.
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