19 JANUARY 1884, Page 2

The Irish Extremists are fond of saying that their race

numbers eleven millions beyond the Atlantic, and that they all demand the separation of Ireland from Great Britain. It appears, however, from the Catholic Census of 1880, quoted in the new edition of the "Statesman's Year-book," that the Catholic Clergy do not even claim more than six millions and a quarter of Catholics in the United States. Deducting from this number the Spaniards in Texas, California, and Florida, the Frenchmen in Louisiana, the French Canadians working in the States, the South-German Catholics, and the English Catholics of Maryland, we shall not have more than 5,000,000 left who may be Irish, and hostile to Great Britain. Even that is a large number, when added to the Irish Catholics in Britain and the remainder of the world ; but it may be doubted if a clear half of them are Parnellites, in any true sense. If they were, the funds subscribed by, say, a million households would reach very different figures from any as yet heard of. A pound a house per annum would not be an extra- vagant subscription for the redemption of a country, particularly from people who are lavishly generous to relatives left behind. The Parnellites have never raised a tenth of that amount.