The effect of this letter, which in language and in
drift is un- usually clear, cannot as yet be ascertained. Its first result has been to induce Mr. F. H. O'Donnell, a Catholic, to assume once more his favourite attitude of Ajax defying the lightning. He has sent £10 to the Parnell Testimonial Fund, and a letter in which he declares that English emissaries have poured the poison of lying assertions into the unsuspecting ears of the Vatican, and have " beguiled with specious mendacity the pastoral simplicity" of the Pontiff. The Free»tan's Journal says the same thing in more respectful form, and Mr. Sexton, at a meeting of the National League called to consider the subject, intimated that so much of the Irish future was bound up in Mr. Parnell's personality, that the Pope could not be attended to ; Mr. Mayne, M.P., also said Mr. Pa.rnell's reward had been "an affront from people who knew nothing of his work, or of the political duty of the Irish people." Mr. Kenny, M.P., denounced the letter as " a shameful insult to the priests and people of Ireland." The serious leaders of the party are not, however, likely to talk nonsense of this kind ; and if they did, it would not matter. Nobody suspects them of reverencing the Pope, any more than anything else. The im- portant question is the effect of the letter upon Biddy and Pat in America, who forward dollars to help Mr. Parnell to separate Ireland from England. As they are sure to ask the priests, and as the priests cannot very well hint, with Mr. O'Donnell, that the Pope is an imbecile, the subscriptions will probably be greatly lessened. At all events, those who subscribe from fear will now have an excellent reason for not yielding to compul- sion. It must be convenient for Mr. Parnell just now that he is not even nominally a Catholic, and so escapes the necessity of feeling damned.
