Archbishop Walsh is much disturbed at the appeals made to
his authority in relation to the controversy between the Bishop of Limerick and Mr. Dillon. He does not want to say what Mr. Dillon and the National League would resent, and he does not want to say what the Pope would resent ; so he only says that his name is unwarrantably dragged into a controversy with which he has nothing to do, and that he protests against its being so dragged into the controversy ; further, that he is leaving Ireland for a few weeks, and that he hopes his name will be let alone during that time by both parties,—as we dare say it will be. What advan- tage can either party get by appealing to an Archbishop of Dublin who does not choose to say to the Pope that he has identified himself too much with the National League to offend it by declaring " Boycotting " and the "Plan of Campaign" theologically indefensible, and who does not choose to say to the National League that he dare not break with the Pope ? Like the Laodicean Church in the Apocalypse, he is neither hot nor cold,—a tepid theologian and a timorous politician.
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