THE POWER OF THE PRIEST IN IRELAND. [To THE EDITOR
OF THE " SPECTATOR."] have just read Colonel Haggard's letter in your issue of January 22nd. I think had he lived in Ireland recently he would alter his opinion. I lived through all the times he speaks of, and knew the late Lady Kingston and Mitchelstown well, but the agitation of those days was child's play compared with the
terror of the Sinn Fein regime. I believe the priest at present has very little power for good, though still a great deal for evil. Has Bishop Cohalan's excommunication decree had the very slightest effect on the assassins calling themselves the I.R.A.? The murders of the Crown forces have gone on exactly as if it kad never been promulgated. The fact is the priests are at present afraid of their flocks, and know that if they do not go with them they will go on without them; so with very few exceptions we hear no condemnations of the terrible murders that are daily disgracing our unfortunate country.—I am, Sir,
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