Jottings From The South Of Ireland.

efforts are being made here and there to bring about a better state of things ; and that education , despite the zeal both of the National Board and the Church Education Society , in planting their schools in the most remote and savage districts of "the country , has not as yet produced much effect on the masses .

Still Avorse , it is evident that disaffection is rife here . Secret societies whose object is the severance , at any price , of the union betAveen Great Britain and Ireland , permeate the land . The loyal Irishman grieves to find that neither the name nor the dj'nasty of our gracious Sovereign

is loved or revered by the majority of her subjects in this portion of her dominions . Worst of all , it is but too patent that superstition , the offspring of a false creed , is still rampant here , though Ave live in the nineteenth century since the Saviour of mankind came forth on his

mission of li ght and truth . May I be permitted to remark here that it is my firm conviction—which I feel certain Avill be endorsed by the churchmen of Ireland—arrived at after considerable acquaintance with the country , both in a secular profession ( the legal ) , in which

I was formerly engaged , and also in the ministry , that , although many solutions of Ireland ' s woes and degradation' haA'e been proposed , such as absenteeism , landlord tyranny , misgovernment , & c . —the pre-eminent obstacle to progress is the Roman Catholic priesthood .

And it is not to be wondered at that such should be the fact . The Irish Roman Catholic priests are , with scarcely an exception , taken from the lowest of the people . The son of the gentleman , the farmer , the respectable tradesman , never thinks of entering the ministry of the Romish Church .

The priest is nearly ahvays the son of the poor cottier-farmer , the small tradesman , the publican , to whom the priesthood is a stepping-stone to

affluence and power . Such men as these , taken from their father's cabins , from the loAvest and most vulgar associations , are immured for some years Avithin Maynooth . Out off , during thenwhole lives , from everything gentlemanly and refining , they are , in due course , ordained , and

sent forth to minister amongst a people , to Avhom the priest is nothing less than , a demi-god . No one who has not witnessed it can form any conception of the blind and absurd reverence paid b y ihe Roman Catholics of Ireland to their spiritual guides . Frequently have I seen these Maynooth

striplings laying the horsewhip most severely on the shoulders of an offending parishioner . But should he still prove recalcitrant , cursing from the altar is resorted to , and fearful persecution , not unfrequently the utter ruin of all his worldly prospectsare the results . I could furnish

, some melancholy instances of this . Now all this tremendous power of the priesthood is almost invariably wielded against England and everything English . The Irish priests , as a

body , hate the sister country . Is it any wonder , then , that the Romish laity should , in general , be cruelly bigoted , vindictive , and disloyal ? Some of the priests , however , are good , kindhearted men , living in peace and amity Avith their Protestant fellow-countrymen . But is it not very

strange that the quietly disposed among the priesthood very frequently belong to what are styled "jovial fellows ? " Great is then- devotion to to whiskey punch , and wonderful their invulnerability to its usually deleterious effects . They are easily recognised by their rubicund faces and

corpulent forms . One of this class , formerly well known in the world of literature , and therefore honourably distinguished from his caste—for the Irish priests , as a body , are by no means literary

—delivered the following humourous sermon , for the genuineness of Avhich I can vouch . It may be taken as a fair sample of Irish priestly sermons , minus the talent and real Avit which it clearly evidences . I abstain from giving the real names of persons and places .

I would also premise that , hoAvever vulgar the folloAving sermon may be , it is not a Avhit more so than some discourses which are occasionally to be heard from a celebrated dissenting pulpit in the metropolis , and in Avhich many Avho pride themselves on belonging to the reliious world greatl

g y delight . Further , whilst the witticisms of the subjoined effusion excite in the readers of the FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE many a hearty laugh , as this can scarcely fail to do , let them also teach us a lesson of thankfulness to God that our lot has

been cast in the green pastures of His holy church , where the volume of the Sacred Law is preached fully , purely , and reverentially : — "FATHER TOM ' S SERMON . " Somewhere in the Scripture , it is written that

whoever gives to the poor lends to the Lord . ' There are three reasons why I don't tell you exactly where this may be found . In the first place , poor creatures that you are ! fevr of you happen to have an authorised Douay edition , printed and published by Richard Coyne , of

Dublin , and certified as correct by Archbishop Troy , and the other heads of the church in Ireland . Few among you , I say , have that , though I know there is not a house in the parish without a loose song-book , or a 'History of the Irish Rogues and Rapparees . ' In the second lace

p , if you had it , it is few of you that could read it , ignorant heathens that ye are . And in the third place , if every man-jack of ye did possess it , and read it ( for the church still admits of the possibility of miracles ) , it would not matter at this present momentfor it happens that I don't quite

, remember in what part of it the text is to be found ; for the Avickedness of my flock has affected my memory and driven many things clean out of my head , which it took me a deal of trouble to put into it , when I was stud ying in foreign parts years