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IRISH PREJUDICE AGAINST MOORE-A

FOOTNOTE

HE truth as to this rather obscure matter

THE

is, that Moore has long suffered from what the French call le rancune ecclésiastique, which we may translate simply as priestly spite, because, although he wrote a book in defence of the Roman Catholic religion, his personal relations toward it during the greater part of his life were never clearly defined. Then it is not forgotten that he failed to convert his Protestant wife and suffered his children to be brought up in the English church.

The rancor ecclesiastical has a long memory and it doubtless recalls the letter which Moore, then a young man enjoying the friendship of Lord Moira, addressed to the Catholics of Dublin anent some proposals of the Whig party with regard to the nomination of

Irish bishops. Moore's advice was practically to throw the Pope overboard, in view of the compensating advantages which were promised to Ireland. It is likely that the letter had small influence, although it was admirably written and sprinkled with the choicest Greek and Latin quotations. Moore was then fresh from college and not averse to airing his acquirements. In short, the letter fell flat, as a far abler document would have done, carrying the same propositions. Curious persons will find it in the supplementary volume of Moore's prose writings which was brought out in this country some years ago, under the editorship of the late Richard Henry Stoddard. (The same volume has even better things than this Dublin letter,I have already referred to that delicious fragment, "The Chapter of the Blanket," which is very much more interesting than the poet's "History of Ireland.")

It seems there has always been a slight

doubt whether Moore died in the Roman Catholic faith, the faith to which he dedicated some of his finest poems and his most eloquent prose. S. C. Hall asserted that the poet changed his religion towards the close of his life, but Hall was not a competent witness, owing to his notorious love of gossip. Howbeit, it is good to learn that the Committee having the Dublin memorial in charge cleared up this vexatious point to its own satisfaction, relieving Moore of the imputation noted. The gravity of such a doubt, in Ireland, can hardly be overestimated.

That spirit of jealous envy of talent or success, which has been always a marked Irish characteristic, is also traceable in the depreciation of Moore. So you will find most fifth-rate Irish literary men and journalists agreed that Moore was not a first-rater. In fact, they try to diminish him by proposing as his equal or his superior such a poet as Mangan who, whatever his merits,—and they

are occasionally great,-is scarcely to be considered in the same class with Moore.

My own opinion is that two or three of Moore's melodies are worth half the theology in the world, and that all the wealth of Ireland could not furnish a monument to equal his just poetic fame. But I am glad that Ireland has accorded this recognition signalised by the Dublin memorial, however dilatory and inadequate, to the greatest of her poets, the most finished of her literary men, and one of the best and sanest of her patriots.

I

JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN

AM to speak in this and the following

essays of a group of Irish poets and balladists who lived and suffered and had their earthly portion toward the middle of the nineteenth century. There are many greater and prouder names than theirs on the roll of literary renown. Even the passionate love of country which inspired them is not perhaps so sure of appreciation now as it was in their own day. I have not been repelled from my choice of subject by the fact that Irish patriotism has been occasionally vulgarised here and abroad. No nation is always fortunate in its exponents, but the reproach will lie heaviest on that unfriended and oppressed nation which has never ceased to struggle during more than seven hundred years for its lost birthright of freedom. The

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