in Ireland than any other with whom he is said to have consulted."

This outspoken resolution was signed by every one of the bishops, and Dr. Murray was again despatched to Rome, this time accompanied by Dr. Moylan, of Cork. Meantime a vehement agitation against the veto burst out all over the country, led at first by Daniel O'Connell and afterwards by the fearless "J. K. L."-the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Right Rev. Dr. Doyle. The opponents of the veto triumphed in the end, but not without a long struggle. We may be confident that young Kenrick was fully alive to all that was going on around him at this dangerous crisis. Though he chose Pope Pius VII. as his model of constancy in after life, it would be unreasonable to think that over this particular episode he took it as a safe or judicious example in dealing with questions into which he had not had the advantage of personally informing himself.

Justice demands, ere this episode be dismissed, that Monsignor Quarantotti should be held blameless as to the birth of the veto idea. Both in Mr. Plowden's History and the Rev. Father Brennan's "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland" the blame is laid at the door of the English Prime Minister, William Pitt. Lord Castlereagh was made the medium of the negotiation. In the year 1799 ten of the Irish bishops, constituting the Board of Maynooth College, held an official meeting in Dublin to consider a proposal from the Government of a State endowment to all the Catholic bishops, the quid pro quo to be acceptance of the veto rule. Besides this tempting offer, Lord Castlereagh, according to Father Brennan, gave solemn assurances that the acceptance of the Government's proposals would immediately secure a measure of emancipation for the Catholic population, and on the decision the fate of that great national question depended.

SECRET PURPOSE OF THE VETO PROPOSAL.

25

"Thus beset," says Father Brennan, "by the proffers of the Minister on the one hand and by the alarming posture of the country on the other, the bishops already alluded to agreed that in the appointment of Roman Catholic prelates to vacant sees within the Kingdom such interference of Government as may enable it to be satisfied of the loyalty of the person appointed is just, and ought to be agreed to.' This statement was accompanied with an admission 'that a provision, through Government, for the Roman Catholic clergy of this Kingdom, competent and secured, ought to be thankfully accepted.'" Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, was one of those who agreed to this resolution, also the Primate, Dr. O'Reilly, of Armagh, as well as Dr. Moylan, of Cork. The transaction was kept secret for eleven years, and before the disclosure was made several of the prelates who signed the resolution had put their hands to another declaring it to be inexpedient to introduce any alteration in the canonical mode previously observed in the nomination of the Irish Catholic bishops.

It is easy, therefore, to believe that Monsignor Quarantotti had been led into a mistake about the disposition of the Irish bishops on the one hand regarding the proposed veto, and of the Government on the other regarding the question of Catholic emancipation. The eminent Dr. Milner was quoted in Parliament as having sanctioned the offer of the veto, but he published a letter stating that he had no authority to sanction such an offer. It remains still unexplained from what quarter emanated the idea that such a proposal might find acceptance at the hands of the Irish hierarchy-possibly one of the numerous secret agents of William Pitt.

Looking back at this whole veto incident, pregnant as it was with evil potentialities to the whole Church, not merely in Ireland, but throughout the world at large, it

is difficult to escape the conclusion that its origin is to be traced to a design to rend the Church by schism, and so destroy it, rather than to a political motive. Such a suspicion did it certainly generate in the quick and penetrating mind of Edmund Burke. That great thinker, who had never faltered in effort for the emancipation of the Catholics, thus masterfully portrayed the fallacies of the idea and the mischief it was likely to develop in case it were carried into effect, in his public "Letter to a Peer:" "Never were the members of one religious sect fit to appoint pastors to another. Those who have no regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint such as are proper. The Seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we are, and where their own sect is concerned, fully as religious; but the sport which they make of the miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the factions of the Harem, to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which they expose and reexpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all the inferior orders of the clergy, is nearly equal to all the other oppressions together exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the Oriental Church. It is a great deal to suppose that the present Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare not do it." To Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford, Burke also wrote: "I am sure that the constant meddling of your bishops and clergy with the Castle, and the Castle with them, will infallibly set them ill with their own body. All the weight which the clergy have hitherto had to keep the people quiet will be wholly lost if this once should happen. At best you will have a masked schism, and more than one kind, and I am greatly mistaken if this is not intended, and diligently and systematically pursued."

PIETY A HERITAGE OF THE KENRICKS.

27

All through his life love of his native land was a marked characteristic of Dr. Kenrick. Patriotism in him was inseparable from faith and virtue; it could have, indeed, no real existence without the one or the other. In the priest patriotism differs from the estimate of it formed by the layman, in very many cases. Though it be a shining virtue, its brilliancy is derived from the supernal light of faith and the constant communion with God which is the exalted privilege of the priest. In the performance of his sacred duty, in whatsoever region of the globe his lot may be cast, he perceives the first and most imperative service he is called upon to render on earth; and it is in the fulfilment of that grateful office that he finds the solace and satisfaction which soften the asperity of prolonged exile and severance of all the ties that make home and fatherland so cherished of all other men. Whithersoever God calls is the true priest's land; and it is this fact which explains the phenomena so often witnessed of a dual loyalty in operation among the Catholic priesthood in the United States-an enthusiastic devotion to the flag and the Constitution of their adopted country, and an undying interest in the fortunes and interests of the land of their nativity. Hence in the exercise of his sacred office, either as priest or bishop, Francis Patrick Kenrick saw no lines of nationality or ethnology. All men were alike to him-brethren in Christ. Many races marched under the banners of the Crusaders, but they forgot not their own particular nationality. The charity of the priest must be larger still. He recognizes no foes, even among those against whom he is bound to fight. Mahometan and Buddhist alike appeal to his humanity and his charity, as well as fellow-Christian.

All those who were brought into close contact with Francis Patrick Kenrick, either as priest or as prelate, were profoundly struck by one great distinguishing char

acteristic. It is one that may be described as sui generis. Unquestioning faith is the inherent attribute of the Irish race, as a general rule. This faith takes the form of a childlike trust in God as well as a profound reverence for the truths of God and the things of His ministry. That faith was possessed by this typical Irishman in a preeminent degree. It shone translucently in his every act of life. There never lived a man who more implicitly trusted in God, placed his fate in His divine hands, or sought His guidance in the important things of life, than he. This sublime confidence was reflected in the cheerful glance of his eye, the turn of his speech, the kindly intonation of his voice. Every step he took in the planting and development of Church and seminary was marked by a sense of confidence begotten of the consciousness of support from on high. God had been called upon by him, again and again, to light his human way, and God had not failed to answer in His own mysterious manner. The supplicant needed all the strength derivable from such a restraining source, for trials lay before him and tasks were set for his hands to accomplish as great, perhaps, as had fallen to the lot of any individual priest or prelate since the early days of the Church.

This perfection of Christian faith was not a plant of slow growth in the case of either of the Kenricks. It was a family heritage. It manifested itself in the early instruction of the two children by their devout parents and in the responsive acceptance by their youthful minds of the truths of religion as naturally as the blessing of the sunshine and the balmy airs of heaven. That most beautiful attribute when seen in early boyhood, an ardent and unaffected piety and a natural inclination toward the things of God and His Church, exhibited itself in both cases in a singular degree-so much so, indeed, that both were enrolled in a purgatorian sodality almost from in