THE CLERICAL CONSPIRACY IN IRELAND. cro THE EDITOR OF THE
" $PEOTATOE."1 SIE,—I will ask space for a few words in reply to the editorial note appended to my letter in the Spectator of July 25th. I. do not complain of the Roman Bishops and clergy using their " influence " to procure the overthrow of Mr. Parnell, but of- their using undue influence and spiritual intimidation, which.t no end, however worthy, could justify. For years past, ever since the great betrayal of 1886, Irish Protestants, Episco- palian, Presbyterian, and Methodist, have been striving to con- vince their co-religionists in Great Britain that a separate- Parliament in Ireland would be a mere instrument of tyranny and oppression in the hands of the Roman Catholic Eph.-- copacy. Here is the proof before your very eyes. Are not. the Bishops and their clergy doing precisely what they used in former days to accuse the landlords of, and what the Ballot and Land Acts were designed to prevent? That Mr. Parnell may deserve his fate, should not induce us to condone his episcopal lynching, or to shut our eyes to its lessons. I read with a pang the other day that Dr. Stephenson, the- President of the Wesleyan Conference, had complained bitterly in his address that "the Government would not listen to the demands of Methodist people for more protec- tion against sacerdotalism in the rural districts," and had warned the Government which all Irish Protestants cling to as their sheet-anchor, that Methodists "would remember thin neglect at the approaching General Election." This dis- tinguished Wesleyan minister has neither eyes to see nor ears to hear the " sacerdotalism " now openly rampant in Ireland, to which be and his friends are doing their utmost tc. subject their Irish brethren. If there were no other reason.. against reviving a separate Parliament in Ireland, the existence of the Roman Episcopacy, with its secret councils_ unconstitutional methods, and successful pretensions to com- mand the votes of Catholics, ought to be sufficient an& invincible.
To this reason we may now add another of pure expediency,„ to which I think British Home-rulers must gradually incline. The Parnellite split has clearly shown the existence of three well-defined and powerful parties in Ireland,—viz., the Unionists, the Clericals, and the independent Nationalists who still vigorously support Mr. Parnell. The Unionists, of course, insist absolutely on the Union ; the Clericals desire- some puny subordinate local Parliament which would be a mere instrument of the priests; the Parnellites struggle for an independent Parliament and "Ireland a nation," separate- from Great Britain but under the same Crown, which, permit me as an Irishman to say, is a respectable though mistaken. ideal. The Unionists number certainly not less than 1,500,000;. the Clericals and Parnellites, judging by recent Irish elections, about 2,000,000 and 1,000,000 respectively, and the latter two parties obviously hate each other much more than either of them dislikes the Unionists. Hence it is apparent that, like the Republic in France, he Union divides Ireland the least..
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