A great demonstration against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick,
Dr. O'Dwyer, was held in Limerick on Sunday, and addressed by Mr. Dillon and Mr. O'Brien. The occasion was, of course, Bishop O'Dwyer's reply to Mr. Dillon's violent attack in the House of Commons. The people of Limerick were asked to support Mr. Dillon, and to declare that he had been in the right in his invective against the Bishop, and this was accordingly done by such of them as attended the demonstration, as a very considerable number,—some say as many as 20,000,—did, but without their priests. It is stated that not one of Dr. O'Dwyer's clergy countenanced the demon- stration. Of Mr. Dillon's ostentatious avowal, that in his opinion any Irish Bishop ought to have been ashamed to approve of the eviction of Irish tenants, "no matter what the merits of the case might be," and of the consequences of the practical application of such teaching, we have said enough in another column. Mr. Dillon also declared his opinion that boy- cotting was a most just and righteous weapon, and that nothing could have been done towards giving justice to Ireland without it,—an assertion which is, we earnestly trust, erroneous ; for no assertion could be more damaging than that to the manliness and moral courage of the Irish people. One would not think much of a people who could never get their debts paid without levying black-mail. Mr. O'Brien said that all he found fault with in the Bishop of Limerick, was his dragging politics into his religion. Unfortunately for that plea, not only the Bishop of Limerick, but the Pope thinks the Ten Commandments much more religious than political.
