priest, as part of his ordinary duty, attended to the inmates whether he was paid or not. But, according to the Return from which I quote, in hardly a dozen out of the 703 Workhouses did he receive any remuneration for his services. Of those 21 which I have named, only in Birmingham, Birkenhead, and Brownlow Hill, did he receive a salary of £50, £45, and £150 a year respectively. I think it right to say, as I happen to know, that since the Return from which I quote was published, other Unions have followed the example of those few. I find that at present the priest receives remuneration from 75 Workhouses in England. But there are 641 in all, very few of which are without a few Catholic inmates, many have over a hundred, and several have hundreds. The movement is making slow progress, and is the result of repeated discussions, and of the persistent fight of years in some cases, made for fair play by Catholic or by tolerant non-Catholic guardians. Such disputes are going on still over the country, but so far without success, in Workhouses where there are hundreds of Catholic paupers. Of course, they are not left unattended by the priest in any case for want of remuneration; but they cannot have Mass on Sundays without an additional priest, and no Catholic Mission in England can afford to tax itself to relieve the public at large of a plain duty. It was once part of my duty to attend to the inmates of one of those London Workhouses and Infirmaries which I have named, for which my Rector received about £80 a year. The Guardians voted it to him a short time before I went there; but up to that time he received nothing. I am pleased, however, to be able to set down here my remembrance of the kind attention and favour which the Guardians and the officials always showed me. I have given those statistics, not to point an invidious contrast, but to show what value is to be set on the cry of intolerance which

certain non-Catholics raise in season and out of season against the Catholics of Ireland.

Let us now turn to the Lunatic Asylums. I submit the following statistics for 15 out of 23 Asylums in Ireland:

In one, where there are 20 Protestant patients, the Protestant chaplain receives £25 a year. In three, where there are 14, 9, and 10 Protestant patients respectively, the Protestant chaplain to each receives £30 a year; and he who is chaplain to the asylum with only 9 Protestant patients lately applied for an increase of salary. In one, where there are 42 Protestant patients, the Protestant chaplain receives £35 a year. In the same asylum, the Catholic chaplain who has charge of 447 patients receives only £70 a year. In one, where there are 35 Protestant patients, the Protestant chaplain receives £37 a year. In one, where there are 91 Protestant patients, the Protestant chaplain receives £60 a year. In two, where there are 43 and 102 Protestant patients respectively, the Protestant chaplain to each receives £50 a year. In one of these asylums there are 46 Presbyterians, for whom the Presbyterian chaplain receives £40 a year. In five, where there are 34, 40, 47, 50, and 58 Protestant patients respectively, the Protestant chaplain to each receives £40 a year. In the last-named there are 44 Presbyterian patients, for whom the Presbyterian chaplain receives £40 a year; and there are 582 Catholic patients, for whom the Catholic chaplain receives only £60 a year. In the first-named there are 4 Presbyterian patients, for whom the Presbyterian chaplain receives £20 a year. In the last but one there are 400 Catholic patients, and the Catholic chaplain receives only £70 a year. In one, where there are 175 Protestant patients, the Protestant chaplain receives £100 a year.

Now, let us compare that with what takes place in England.

I take the following extracts from "The Fifty-eighth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 29th June, 1904 ":

Salop and Montgomery Asylum:-" Patients of the Roman Catholic faith, being 30 in number, are visited periodically by a priest. This clergyman is unpaid. Somerset and Bath Asylums: "There are no services provided for the Roman Catholic patients, who are 17 in number." Yorkshire (North Riding) Asylum:-" No service is provided for the 66 patients who profess the Roman Catholic faith." Yorkshire (West Riding) Asylum (1):-"For the 134 patients who profess the Roman Catholic faith no regular service is provided; but Mass is celebrated twice a year by a priest, who also visits the patients occasionally, but receives no remuneration." Yorkshire (West Riding) Asylums (3):—“A patient who professes the Roman Catholic faith, and who is a wellconducted and orderly man, complained, in very bitter terms, that no service was provided on Sunday, which he and the other 102 patients who profess the same faith could attend. Our colleagues have frequently expressed their regret that no regular service is held in this institution on Sunday for the Roman Catholic inmates, and we would again commend this matter to the very anxious consideration of the committee." Yorkshire (West Riding) Asylums (4):-" For the 155 patients who profess the Roman Catholic faith a weekly service is held in Ward 34; but we regret to report Mass is never celebrated, and the priest receives no remuneration for his services." Leicester Borough Asylum:-" There are 21 Roman Catholics whom a priest attends weekly, but he receives no stipend." Newcastle City Asylum:-" For the 162 patients who profess the Roman Catholic faith a

chapel morning service is also provided, although we regret to notice only once a month." And so on.

I do not want to insist on those extracts as an evidence of intolerance across the Channel. I merely state the facts; I assign no cause to them; I let them speak for themselves; their explanation will be more convincing than any commentary of mine. Let each one as he reads them, in the light of those facts which I have given on the provision for Protestant inmates in Irish workhouses and asylums, form his own judgment according to his own light.

CHAPTER XIX.

RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS IN IRELAND; THEIR COST

AND THEIR WORK.

"But it is not alone the extravagant church-building which, in a country so backward as Ireland, shocks the economic sense. The multiplication-in inverse ratio to a declining population-of costly and elaborate monastic and conventual institutions, involving what, in the aggregate, must be an enormous annual expenditure for maintenance, is difficult to reconcile with the known conditions of the country. Most of these institutions, it is true, carry on educational work, often, as in the case of the Christian Brothers and some colleges and convents, of an excellent kind. Many of them render great services to the poor, and especially to the sick poor. But, none the less, it seems to me their growth in number and size is anomalous. I cannot believe that so large an addition to the 'unproductive' classes is economically sound, and I have no doubt at all that the competition with lay teachers of celibates 'living in community' is excessive and educationally injurious. Strongly as I hold the importance of religion in education, I personally do not think that teachers who have renounced the world, and withdrawn from contact with its stress and strain, are the best moulders of the characters of youth who will have to come in direct conflict with the trials and temptations of life. But here again we must accept the situation, and work with the instruments ready to hand. The practical and statesmanlike action of all those concerned is to endeavour to render these institutions as efficient educational agencies as may be possible. They owe their