Rome and Fenianism: The Pope's Anti-Parnellite Circular

William Maziere Brady

Sep 2020 · Library of Alexandria

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IT is said that the feelings of the Irish people towards the British government are now more bitterly hostile than ever. And it is remarked as strange that this bitterness should be so intense precisely at a period when the British government shows most sympathy with Irish complaints and the greatest disposition to remedy Irish grievances. This sympathy and this disposition found expression in the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant Church and the enactment of the Land Acts. By the first of these measures it was intended to grant full religious equality in Ireland, and, by the second, it was endeavoured to protect the tenants against the alleged rapacity of landlords. In effect, the Irish tenants at will or from year to year are now secured against capricious evictions; they can no longer be compelled to pay exorbitant rents; nor can the fruits of their industry and pecuniary expenditure be any longer confiscated to the exclusive benefit of the landlords. The demands of the Irish Catholics for a University have been partially granted, and steps have been taken to transform the National system of primary education, which was stigmatized as godless, into one which will be denominational. Nor are indications wanting that these large concessions to Irish and Catholic demands will be followed at no long interval by others which will still further satisfy the popular longings. It is expected that the benefits of the Land Act will be extended to house-holders, and that to all occupiers of the soil facilities will be afforded for purchasing the fee of their holdings and becoming proprietors of their farms. The Royal University, intended for Catholics. will, it in said, he placed on a loss niggardly footing. The primary education system may be rendered still more agreeable to the feelings of the Catholic people. And it is rumoured that the British Ministry is disposed to entertain the idea of granting to Ireland. at no distant date, the privilege of governing itself in some matters not involving the integrity of the empire.