The Freeman's Journal, which, while professing to discredit it, had
given publicity to a gross attack on the Bishop of Limerick as an intriguer with the Government in the interest of the landlords, and an enemy of Home-rule, has had to publish a most manly reply, in which the Bishop states that he has sought to take as little part in politics as possible ; that except his speech on the Irish University question, he has kept out of politics till this attack was made upon him ; that he has always pleaded for the principle of Home-rule ; that he has always tried to alleviate the hardships of the tenants ; but that be has told his priests frankly that in an excitable country like Ireland, boycotting is a sin, and a sin very likely to lead to murder, and that the " Plan of Campaign" is morally indefensible. He further states that the attempt on the part of the Irish Press, supported by the Pall Mall Gazette, to force Monsignor Persico's hand by a series of veiled threats, is in effect treating the Pope, simply because he has only moral force at his disposal, as they would not dare to treat the pettiest Court in Ireland. The Freeman's Journal, in publishing this protest, affects to accept it with great joy, and, indeed, is evidently much daunted by Dr. O'Dwyer's manly and bold asser- tion of moral and episcopal independence.
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