The Irish standard., 1899-01-07
against the payment of tithes to the
established church. This controversy

led to some unpleasantness between Fa-
ther O'Leary and other ecclesiastics, but
considering the difficulty of the Catholic
position in those days, such divergences
of view are hardly to be wondered at.
One of the most interesting polemics in
which the Capuchin was engaged was an
encounter with John Wesley. Strangely
enough, Wesley, though seceder from
the established church, thought well to
take up the cudgels for it when it was
openly attacked, and his arguments pro-
voked severe castigation from the
dreaded pen of Father OLeary. Yet the
two disputants afterwards met at the
house of a mutual friend, and Wesley
confessed he was delighted with the con-
versation Of his brilliant antagonist. A
splendid pamphlet on federation" was
also produced by him at the period Of
the No-Popery riots Uord George Cor
don's), in which Father O'Leary scored
heavily over the fact that the toleration
established by William Penn in this
country was forestalled by the establish
ment of that principle by Lord Baltimore
in Maryland.
We have gone over the evidence col
lated by Mr.. Fitzpatrick in his valuable
book, ''Secret Service Under Pitt" and
having weighed it carefully, find no
proof of any action on Father O'Leary's
part to justify the abominable charge
i brought against him by Froude, adopted
by Lecky, and re-echoed to some extent
by Fitzpatrick himself, that he was a
spy. There are some passages in the
| correspondence between Orde, the Irish
chief secretary, and Lord Sydney, Will
| lam Pitts brother-in-law, which would
| indicate that Orde intended to utilize him
in such a way, but there are against
these others expressing disappointment
I and failure in this design. Yet Fitz-
patrick asserts that mysterious relations
existed between Father O'Leary and the
| government, though he does not produce
a scrap of proof to sustain the insinua-
ton.
1t is to be feared that Mr.. Fitzpatrick,
spies and informers in Irish political
movements, may have worked himself
into certain susceptibility of mind over
| the subject. He had little of that attri-
butte which has been aptly styled "the
| historical temperament" He was an
amiable man, very tenacious of his the
ories, and capable Of taking infinite
pains. This ought to have constituted
him a genius, according to an authorita-
tive definition, but it did not He was a
valuable man on a trail, but beyond this
I his literary talents were of little ac-
count. He had hardly the faculty of
classification of his facts, much less the
fundamental ideas Of the philosophy of
history. He has contributed nothing de-
cisive regarding the doubt about Father
O'Leary. That fact in itself tells power
fully in favor of the baselessness of the
doubt When we remember that Mr..
Fitzpatrick had access to all the state
papers bearing on the subject, and to
heaps of private correspondence pre-
served in family archives as we'll, we
ought not to be content with a verdict
of mot proven"
In weighing the probabilities in such
a case as this, we must not overlook one
very important element-the influence of
the priestly character. All testimony
goes to show that Father O'Leary was a
! truly Jealous and holy priest. His ca
reer at St. Malo, where he was educated,
and as member of the Franciscan order
in the obscure little church which long
bore his name in Cork, was eminently ed
flying, and won for him the fervent af-
fection of all with whom he was brought
into contact. In social life he was high
ly esteemed, and his company was sought
after by the choicest wits of the day as
soon as his talents had attracted public
attention. AS controversialist he has
never been surpassed, and his political
principles may be regarded as those
which paved the way for the broad and
tolerant system of our own constitution.
One of his biographers, Mr.. Pratt, speaks
of him enthusiastically as "the blameless
priest who Is known to have long consid-
cred himself as an advocate pleading for
the Protestant in France and the Jew in
Lisbon, as well as for the Catholic in
Ireland; the patriot whose loyalty is
sound; the philanthropist who, clothing
humanity in the robes Of eloquence, en-
ployed his voice and pen in exhorting
mankind to lay aside religious distinc-
tions."
The first appearance of Father O'Leary
on the public stage was as the writer of
can Address to the Common People of
Ireland" at a period when the allied
fleets of France and Spain were in the
channel with the avowed purpose of
making landing in Ireland, and ennis
saries of the allies were at work in Ul-
ster and Munster stirring up the Presby-
terians in the one place and the Catho-
lies in the other to make common cause
with the invaders. There cannot be a
scintilla of doubt that in exhorting the
people not to be seduced by these ennis
saries, Father OLeary was acting in
perfect accordance with what he be-
lieved to he his own duty. and for the