Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-23
FOR NPCABE'S SUCCESSOR.
Belief That the Choice Has Fallen OIL
DR.. Walsh

l believe it is not too early, says a Lon
don cablegram in Saturdays New York
Times, to venture prediction respecting
Mr.. ParnelFs party and the English Gov
ernment IN the struggle now waging in
and about the Vatican over the successor
to Cardinal McCabe. My prediction is
that the English will be beaten in this
struggle. In fact, l have information
from both sides which seems to point
without question to the fact that
the next Prlmate will be an ardent
Nationalist. The PapacY tried to
fall out with the Parnell leaders
last year. and with the result that the
Parnell tribute money was swollen from
f4,O 900 to 100000 and that nearly the en-
tire Peters pence fund was suspended.
AS soon as the results of this
mistake were seen the policy was
changed, and the difference was speedily
displayed in the appointment of a Coad-
jutor Bishop Tor Cork. Dean Nevelle,
who is an able and aristOcratic Whig,
and who was strongly urged by the
English, was set aside in that appoint
ment for Father O'Callaghan, who is a
decided Nationalist. The Pope is then
said to have lad down the rule that in
future no bishop shall be appointed in Ire
land pOputO iRUitO.
But the reasons for predicting Ma
tionalist success in the present contest
are stronger than this fact would indicate.
The new man IS practically certain to be
DR.. Walsh, the well-known president of
the Maynooth College. He is about 40
years of age. In size he is small. His
complexion is excessively dark, and he
has piercing ewes. He wears gold
trimmed spectacles. All his life has been
spent in the college as student, profess
sOr, and president. For the past five
years the great AOdy of clerical
alumni with whom he has come into
personal contact have grown extremely
fond of him. He has been one of the fore
most writers of the Nationalist propa-
ganda. His pamphlets on the land Ques-
ton have been by far the best that the
controversy has evoked. 1t was he who
fought the Duke of Leinster and over
threw the famous Leinster leases, which
were cunning evasiOns of the reform
regulations of 1870. During Cardinal
McCabe's regime he has been recognized
as the head of the opposition, which has
OF the Irish clergy. Cardinal
McCabe, who went to an ex-
treme of English sympathy in Ireland
not easily to be exaggerated, and who used
the whole machinery of the church to
punish the priests for their Nationalist
leanings, once said to him: "DO you know
L could exile you to the lowest and mean
est parish in the whOlel archdiocese?''
To this DR.. Walsh replied: eyes but YOU
don't dare" Mr.. Parnell, when once
asked if he knew DR.. Walsh replied: 81
should think | did know him. 1t was he
who got me put into PRISON. He then
laughngly explained that it was from
DR.. Walsh that he got the phrase "Prai-
RE valuation" which served as the pre-
text for his conviction.
A significant straw in this matter was
seen few days ago, when the Cathedral
Chapter met to select a Vicar Capitular
to serve during the interim. Assistant
Archbishop DOnnelly, who, as a matter
of etiquette, has expected to get the place,
although he had no formal right TO the
succession, insisted on opening the pro-
ceedings by reading Lord Spencer's letter
of coincidence against the protest of some
of the CanOns. When a ballot for Vicar
Capitular was taken DR.. Donnelly got
votes and DIR. Walsh 90 Out of the so
priests who vote on the names to be sent
to Rome it is believed that all but 6 have
put DR.. Walsh's name first. One of the
rural priests was asked the other day in
Dublin if he intended voting for DR..
Walsh. He replied Faith, if | didn't
my own curates would boycott me-"
There is also a side reason for the unani-
nous desire of the priests to have a Ma
tiOnalist primate. 1t is not quite so ele-
waited as the patriotic reason. Under the
regime of Cardinal McCabe and of his
predecessor, Cardinal Cullen, who forbade
political action on the part OF the parish
priests, the priests had a sort of rival au-
thority set up under their very noses in
the form of presidents of local leagues,
the result OF which was the impairment
of priestly authority and often a dam
aging falling off in clerical influence.
Not little of their anxiety for a change
at this time is due, no doubt, to a desire
to regain their power by leading political
movements.
DR.. Walsh, If created Primate-and of
his election there seems to be no longer
any doubt-will be a figure in Irish affairs
second only to Mr.. Parnell. The immedl-
ate local effect of his accession will be an
enormous change in Dublin politics and
the completion of the social eclipse of the
Castle already begun by the present Lord
Mayors abstention. The general under
effect will be more sweeping, perhaps,
than even the NatiOnalists dare to hope.