The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-03-18 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

ARCHBISHOP AND THE LEAGUE.  A pastoral letter from the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. M'Cabe, who has recently been appointed a cardinal, was read in all the chapels of the diocese on Sunday. The document deals with the "No Rent " manifesto, the recent murder of a Fenian informer in Dublin. and the attempt on the Queen's life. In the course of his address, the Archbishop says : They (the clergy) dare not remain silent in the face of crimes which are bringing disgrace on our name and the religion of our country. A decree which struck at the security of all property, and consequently exposed to peril the faith they all loved, went forth to the country some time ago, and they had seen that decree enforced by the threat of terrible penalties, and its violation punished by atrocities that made them shudder—even by murder, which called aloud to heaven against their perpetrators and abettors. How could God bless a cause, though good in itself, which was sustained by such unholy agencies? How could he bless a soil which had drunk up human blood iniquitously spilt? If famine again should threaten the land, how could the Church call upon her ministers to offer supplication for their people, if the people raised not their voices to execrate these deeds of blood? Silence might mean approval, and approval meant the participation in guilt, and when the prayer for mercy ascended from the altar of religion, " Spare, 3 Lord, spare thy people," the terrible .answer of an outraged God might speedily come, " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from earth." God forbid that they should charge the men who sent forth the manifesto thus enforced by abominable crimes with blood thus wickedly poured ' out. They were sure their souls revolted as much as his against these deeds of • darkness, and he was persuaded that had they foreseen tho awful enforcement of their decree that decree would never have gone forth. " Bat," said his Grace, "this horrid of spectre of murder has stalked in the very heart of our own city. Has not our own soil opened her mouth to receive a brother's blood ? This barbarous murder (alluding to the murder of the informer), to all appearance plotted and arranged with fall delibera-. tion in some secret assembly, and committed under the very shadow of the altar of God, gives us a terrible warning of the dangers which threaten society." His Grace then referred to how the Pontiffs denounced Viose secret societies whieh had for their object the overthrow of ecclesiastical authority. The injury the unhappy dupes of these associations inflicted upon authority was probably remote and small. no injuries they inflicted upon themseliferf were immediate and terrible. They vowed obedience to an nnknown aatibos rity ; they tont/dad themselves iñtó blind instruments for executing the decrees of an,invisWe ai4 irreepolliabkk tribunal; and the became, in 410 worst sense, 'abject slaves. They were partners in a thousand crimes which  irregßoiSibiet  woihl4lll their souls w*,..horror could they balml3t surrey thist, and having parted with their liberkv,...by becoming .memleers of a body' IMId to iniquity, they were before God and man partakers in its guilt. His .Grace called upon the Catholic clergy in the voice of authority to- itnplore the people to set themselves free from these societies; and if any person was at all invofved  in them,- ai the risk even of life to leave them, for they know not the moment they might be called upon to 1, perpetrate some deed of blood. He added', "Beg of them, for the sake of their God, their country, to fly these condemned associations." Some of the frenzied supporters of Mr. Parnell will, no doubt, declare that Dr. M'Cabe has , stepped out of his sphere, and set him at defiance. But the Land League is doomed. It cannot live condemned by the Church to which the majority of its members owe allegiance. It may be that a considerable section of the Irish people think that, on the whole, it is rather a meritorious act to shoot a bad landlord or an informer, but they are as passionately religious as they are vindictive towards those whom tradition has taught them to hate, and will elect, in many cases, to fall under the ban of the Land League iather than that of the Church. It is, therefore, well that Dr. M'Cabe has spoken out with trumpet voice to the misguided and the ignorant, though he may incur the odium of the agitating fraternity.