The general tone of the news from Ireland, disastrous as
some incidents have been, is not without some gleams of hope. The rioting in the cities, though serious, was in a great degree the work of lads, and even the American Irish counsel abstinence from insurrection. The troops have not yet been compelled to fire, and the danger of local em Mee is believed to be subsiding. The suppression of the League has not been fol- lowed by more riots, and the League has forbidden public meetings. The Land Court has been opened at last, and though the information is not yet conclusive, the indications are that those of the peasantry who are rack-rented will at once resort to it. The opening scene revealed, indeed, a liking for the Court even among the populace of Dublin. The manifesto of the Land League prohibiting the payment of rent has elicited from the Catholic Church, through the Archbishop of Cashel, a counter-manifesto, denouncing repudiation, as contrary alike to principle and policy. Archbishop Croke's letter is lacking in a feature it ought to have possessed,—a strong statement of Catholic abhor- rence, on religious grounds, of such threats ; but it derives force from his long and, as we deem, unwise support of the League, in every stage but the last. The sky is still black, but there are rifts in it.
