should be made in the public service on exclusively religious
lines ? What I wished to bring under the notice of your readers was that in Ireland Catholics, no matter how well
qualified, are kept out, and that Protestants have practically a monopoly of everything over here. By Protestants I mean the half-million of Episcopalian Protestants who are the favoured section ; for whilst Catholics are treated almost u outlaws, the Presbyterians are looked upon as poor relations who have no claim to anything more than the crumbs of the
table.
It is absurd to suggest that Sir Horace Plunkett could not get amongst three and a half million Catholics a single man com- petent to fill the position of first, second, or even third assistant in the National Library of Ireland, or that there is not at the Irish Bar a Catholic capable of acting as County Court Judge in Kerry, Roscommon, Mayo, or Donegal. The fact is that Catholics who are treated to soft words by Mr. Balfour and Mr. Wyndham are being driven out everywhere, and that the public service in Ireland is becoming "every day more and more of a monopoly.
No doubt owing to the oppression of Catholics in the matter of University education, they have not as great a number of well- qualified men as their neighbours; but whilst on the one hand this drawback is made an excuse for the exclusion of those we have, nothing is done on the other to equalise the supply or give Catholics a fair opportunity in the struggle for life. You are mistaken if you think for a moment that I desire to excite ill-feeling between Catholics and Protestants. Nothing is farther from my intention ; and if I only saw on the part of our rulers any sincere disposition to hold the balance fairly between the contending parties in Ireland, I would be the last to trouble you on a subject of this kind. I know, however, that there is deep and bitter resentment felt in Ireland even amongst the most moderate and law-abiding Catholics at the turn things have taken. I fail to see what earthly advantage is gained by the British people in turning against them the angry and resentful feelings of millions of Irish Catholics at home and abroad.
—I am, Sir, &c., J. F. HOGAN, D.D.
[We cannot deal with this letter at length, but we must pro- test against the assumption that the British people desire to oppress Roman Catholics, or to make their creed a bar to the holding of public office. They desire absolute fairness, and are as proud of, and feel as much confidence in, a great Roman Catholic Judge like Lord Justice Mathew as in any Protestant member of the Bench.—ED. Spectator.]
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