A circular address to the Roman Catholic Clergy, signed by
the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland (inoluding even Arch- bishop Croke and Bishop Nulty), has just been published, in which they say that, in obedience to the Sacred Congre- gation of the Propaganda and the instructions of the Holy Father, they are to call the attention of the Irish priesthood to the sin of pursuing even objects like the secular prosperity of Ireland by evil means. The junior clergy are admonished against attending political meetings, and are exhorted to leave that to the older and soberer clergy, who may have learned how to restrain the passions of the people, and to keep within the limits of justice and charity. The Ladies' Laud League is particularly struck at by the circular, the clergy being warned, in the language of the Sacred Congrega- tion :—" Peculiari yore studio ad eam fceminarum societatem examinanclam animum adjungant, gum muliebre fcedus ad agrariam causam tuendam appellate est, oonsiderentque quot effectus plane calamitosi verecuudice fceminarum inde per- timescendi sint ; quos omnino devitare necesse est : ipsos vero politicos mulierum motus congregationesque generatim in se spectates hand tolerandas videri." That exhortation must have been a bitter pill to the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Meath. It is rumoured that they have some way of explaining it which is consistent with toleration of the Ladies' Land League, but we cannot imagine what it is. These prelates would have been wiser not to sign, unless they intend to accept the spirit of the warning to which they have lent their sanction.
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