Archbishop Croke, in a recent letter to the editor of
the Freeman's Journal, February 13th, says some very candid things as to the decay of Home-rule. "Four years ago," be says," the Irish were a united people." Now "our enthusiasm has cooled down, or died away ; our Bishops, for the moat part, hold aloof from the National cause ; our priests are dis- trustful and dissatisfied." Still more frankly pessimistic is the admission that "the hope of obtaining a Legislature for our country, within measurable time, is no longer entertained by reasoning men." All this has come to pass, partly because the spirit of faction is more potent than the spirit of patriotism, and "in part also because what one set of Irish politicians proposes for the common weal will, almost of a surety, be derided, denounced, an scornfully rejected by another." The abler Nationalists will, we expect, say, with Hamlet that, though all this is most, true, they "hold it not honesty to be here set down."
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