Mr. Charles Russell on Wednesday delivered a rather remark- able
speech to a rifle association at Limerick. He said he thought that at least one cause of the long war of classes in Ireland was rapidly disappearing. That was religious differ- ence. He believed this was the question of questions for Ireland, and hoped that the time was coming when no man would be judged by the altar at which he worshipped. He thought it was coming, the proof being that the men most trusted as representatives, even by Catholic constituencies, are not of the religion of the people. There was everything to hope, and nothing to dread, from this spread of tolerance among the people of Ireland. Mr. Russell's statements are not only true, but he might have made them much stronger. Nothing has been more remarkable throughout the whole of the recent agitation than the absence in it of any element of religious bitterness. But then, does this tolerance, in itself so excellent, proceed from a sense of justice, or from indifference to religion ? To elect men of both creeds indifferently is, or may be, a sign of progress ; but to murder men of both creeds indifferently, is not. One would like to see Catholic rent-payers spared, or Protestants who serve boycotted farmers, even if there was a little religious partiality in the sparing.
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