IRISH ILLITERATE VOTERS.
[To THE EorroA os T8E "fssoraroa."]
Bra,—Your article on this subject has come as a surprise on many Irishmen who have so long admired the Spectator for its evident desire to try to be fair towards this " most dis- tressful country" and its priesthood. You quote from a correspondent who describes what was heard " from every altar in —" before an election, and which he alleged is broadly typical of what happens in Ireland generally." He adds that when the priests have to deal with doubtful voters they "order them to vote illiterate," and are obeyed without hesitation.
This is a startling state of things, and the Spectator accepts the statements as completely reliable. This is the more strange as it is plain the correspondent must be relying on representations made by others who, not impossibly, may have been moved by a fever of politics which prevails in Ireland with an intensity unknown in England. Your in- formant cannot have had precise information of what was said from every altar in Ireland; he cannot even have been worshipping before " every altar " in his own localit.'.
The serious thing is, that the Spectator imputes to the priests of Ireland the serious offence of suborning perjury. It is distinctly stated that these pastors of the people order members of their flock "to vote illiterate" when there is no illiteracy, and, as a preliminary, to make a solemn declara- tion, which the law treats as an oath, and which, being untrue, carries with it the penalties of perjury. It seems only fair that the class against whom this- terrible charge is made should get an opportunity of meeting it, and Englishmen are said to fivour fair-play. Let a locality or localities be named then, and let the dark thing be dragged into light. A denial -cannot be expected to come from every parish in Ireland. The charge should be made in a concrete shape, and if it is established against the priests of even one parish in Ireland, we may hope that it will be dealt with as it deserves.—I am,
[The drift of this letter runs quite contrary to all the previous information we have received, and as regards the undue political influence often exercised by the priests, it is in direct conflict with the evidence produced at the trial of the kileath-Petition.—En. Spectator.]
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