[2] _Ruperti abbatis, Duitiensis, de divinis officiis._ (L. C. VI., c.
29.)
Our New Cardinal.
[Illustration: CARDINAL GIBBONS.]
The _Catholic Review_:--The Archbishop of New York, on Wednesday
morning, February 10th, received a cablegram from Rome, announcing that
most Rev. James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, would be created
Cardinal at the next Consistory. The _biglietto_, or official letter,
from the Cardinal Secretary of State announcing the creation of his
Eminence, was mailed to him on February 8th. This cablegram, although
not official, is authentic. It is not unexpected. It certainly is no
surprise to those who were privileged to hear the graceful address in
which the senior of the American hierarchy, the venerable Archbishop
Kenrick, of St. Louis, thanked Archbishop Gibbons for the courtesy,
patience and industry with which, as Apostolic-Delegate, he conducted
and brought to a close the affairs of the Plenary Council at Baltimore.
In chosen and significant words, such as one in Archbishop Kenrick's
position might use in anticipating an expected act of the Supreme
Pontiff, he predicted the future and increased honors of the
Apostolic-Delegate, and in such a way as to indicate that they would be
most grateful to his brothers and associates. Nor are they less a matter
of pride and congratulation to the entire body of the faithful. No doubt
we are all anxious to see many of the other great cities of America
honored, as are smaller and less vigorous dioceses in Europe; and with
increasing years, most likely these honors will come. No doubt the
captious are sometimes found to say that Baltimore, first in years, is
very far behind in works, in the great race of Catholic American
progress. But there has never been found one so unjust as to deny to the
gentle, zealous and apostolic Archbishop of Baltimore all the virtues
that bring honor to the chief priesthood of the Church. One little work
of his, "The Faith of Our Fathers," will perpetuate his apostolate as
long as Protestantism exists. His has been indeed a democratic
promotion. From the humblest and least important of the missionary
vicariates of the Church in America, he has steadily moved onward,
growing with every step in mental, moral and ecclesiastical grandeur,
until he stood at the head of the episcopate of America. His
stepping-stone was, always and only, his unquestionable merit and
services. Can any sect show as fair a field for merit as the new
Cardinal's career proves is to be found in the Church of Christ? It
opens and keeps open to intellect and virtue the path to its highest
honors. The transcendent honor of the Roman Cardinalate, which thus
comes once more to an American Archbishop, will be prized by his
Eminence's countrymen of all religious faiths, as giving them a share in
the glories of a Council that has never been more illustrious than in
those days, when Leo XIII. has opened its doors to the first and leading
minds of the Universal Church, without consideration of distance, race
or continent.
His Birth, Education, etc.
Most Reverend James Gibbons was born in Baltimore, in 1836. His parents
were Irish, and, when a boy, he was taken to Ireland, where he remained
several years. At the age of seventeen he returned to America, and soon
after entered St. Charles' College, near Ellicott City, Md., to commence
his studies for the priesthood. Here he remained four years, and was
then transferred to St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, to pursue the study
of theology and philosophy. He was ordained in 1860, his first mission
being the obscure parish of St. Bridget's, Baltimore. Archbishop
Spalding soon discovered his merits, and he transferred him to the
Cathedral and made him his secretary. His rise was rapid and brilliant.
In 1868 he was made Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, with the rank of
bishop, and in a few years he was elected to the See of Richmond. When
Archbishop Bayley died, in 1875, Right Rev. Dr. Gibbons was appointed
his successor in the See of Baltimore. Thus, at the early age of forty
he had attained the highest ecclesiastical position in the United
States, for Baltimore is the oldest, and, therefore, the primary
American See. To it belongs the highest dignity in the American
Catholic Church. The archbishops of Baltimore have always been men of
distinguished ability. The immediate predecessor of Archbishop Gibbons
was James Roosevelt Bayley, a member of a prominent New York family. He
was the nephew of Mother Seton, the founder of the Order of Sisters of
Charity in the United States. His predecessor was the learned Spalding,
whose elegant voice was conspicuous in the great Council of the Vatican.
Some Incidents of His Life.
While Archbishop Gibbons presided over the small country parish of
Elkridge, near Baltimore, an incident occurred which gave him a large
measure of local fame. Small-pox broke out in the village, and a general
exodus immediately followed. An old negro man at the point of death was
deserted by his family, who left him neither food nor medicines. Fr.
Gibbons heard of the case, hastened to the bedside of the dying man and
remained with him to the last. Nor was this all. No one could be
procured to carry the corpse to the grave. Fr. Gibbons, seeing no other
alternative, determined to act as undertaker as well as minister; so,
having obtained a coffin, he placed the body therein, dragged it as well
as he could to the grave, performed the funeral rites and buried it. His
career as vicar of North Carolina was filled with occurrences equally as
noteworthy, but of a humorous rather than pathetic nature. He still
talks with zest of his all-day rides on horseback through the North
Carolina pines; of nights spent in the flea-covered log cabins of the
negroes, whose best accommodations consisted of a corn-husk bed, meals
spread out on the floor and gourds for drinking cups; of savory dinners
of fat bacon and hoe cakes, and of other accompaniments of missionary
life among the negroes of that region.
There is one incident in the primate's life which he seldom touches on,
but which caused immense amusement at the time it occurred. While Bishop
of Richmond, he was the defendant in a suit relating to some church
property. When he was called to the witness stand, the plaintiff's
lawyer, a distinguished legal luminary, who still shines in Richmond,
after vain endeavors to involve the witness in contradictions, struck on
a plan which he thought would annoy the bishop. He thereupon questioned
Mr. Gibbons' right to the title of bishop of Richmond, and called on him
to prove his claim to the office. The defendant's lawyer, of course,
objected to this as irrelevant; but the bishop, with a quiet smile, said
he would comply with the request if allowed a half-hour to produce the
necessary papers. This was allowed. The bishop left the court room and
returned in twenty minutes with a document which he proceeded to read
with great solemnity, all the more solemn as the paper was all in Latin.
The plaintiff's lawyer pretended to take notes industriously, bowing his
head once in a while as if in acquiescence, and seeming perfectly
convinced at the end. When the reading was finished, he announced that
the Papal Bulls just read were entirely satisfactory, at the same time
apologizing for his expressed doubts. The next day it leaked out that
the bishop, unable to find the Papal Bulls at his residence, had
brought to court and read a Latin essay on Pope Leo the Great, written
by one of the ecclesiastical students, and forwarded by the president of
the college as a specimen of the young man's skill in Latin composition.
That smart lawyer has not heard the last of it yet.
As an Author and Orator.
Archbishop Gibbons is the author of one volume, "The Faith of Our
Fathers," which has met with a larger sale than any Catholic book
published in America. More than one hundred thousand copies have been
sold since its publication in 1877. The work is made up chiefly of
simple sermons on the doctrines of Catholicity, delivered while on the
mission in North Carolina.
As a pulpit orator, the primate has many superiors in the hierarchy. He
has neither an impressive presence nor a good voice. He seldom attempts
elaborate discourses. He is at his best in simple appeals to the heart,
and to this fact is due his missionary success. Some of his
fellow-bishops may have greater power to convince the intellect, but
none can touch the feelings more deeply.
The Irish as Conspirators.
In a recent issue of the _Nineteenth Century_, a magazine published in
London, is an article by Mr. Arnold Forster, in which the following
statement was used:
"Irishmen were at the bottom of the Mollie Maguire conspiracy in
Pennsylvania; Irishmen plotted against the officials and the Chinese in
San Francisco; the Tammany ring was largely supported by Irish citizens,
and even the Boston police were tampered with by Irish politicians of
that city." To controvert this view, and particularly the reflection
upon the Boston police, the _Republic_ newspaper of Boston sent a
circular letter to a number of prominent men, requesting such denials as
they might see fit to furnish. Governor Robinson writes: "I have already
taken occasion to contradict emphatically an assertion said to have been
recently made in England that the act to establish a board of police for
the city of Boston, passed by the legislature of Massachusetts in 1885,
was necessitated by the threatening and disorderly character and conduct
of the Irish people in Boston. In all the conferences, arguments and
declarations about that act, before its introduction, or while it was
under consideration in the legislature, no intimation of that kind ever
reached me, and I do not believe it to be true. Nor is there, in my
opinion, any more foundation for the statement to which you call my
attention. Sharp political controversies arise; but happily no question
of race or nationality aggravates the differences among our people upon
public matters."
Charles A. Dana, editor of _New York Sun_, says: "I cannot now recall
the name of a single citizen of Irish birth who was known as a supporter
of the Tammany ring; and it is notorious that the head of it, the late
William M. Tweed, was a full-blooded American. At the same time, one of
the most conspicuous of its adversaries, the late Charles O'Conor,
though born in this country, was thoroughly Irish in heart and sympathy.
Another distinguished enemy of Mr. Tweed's ring was his successor as the
leader of Tammany Hall, the present Mr. John Kelly, a man of Irish
descent, and a more determined foe of every kind of corruption and of
public dishonesty has never lived."
Gen. Butler thus replies: "I can certainly give you the most thorough
denial of the slanders upon the Irishmen by the article of the
_Nineteenth Century_. I have known the Irish-Americans intimately ever
since my boyhood, and they are as good, loyal people as any in the
world, and as soldiers among the very best."
Congressman Curtin, of Pennsylvania, speaks relative to the Mollie
Maguire conspiracy as follows: "I can speak relative to the Mollie
Maguire conspiracy in Pennsylvania. Some of the men engaged in it were
Irishmen; some were not. The race to which the criminals belonged had
nothing to do with the crime or its punishment; nor should the fact of
the existence of the Mollie Maguire conspiracy, which was a crime
perpetrated by citizens of Pennsylvania against the good order of that
Commonwealth and punished by its officers, have any effect on the
aspirations of the Irish people, who were innocent of participation in
it, and who had no sympathy with it."
Ex-Mayor Palmer, of Boston, thus defends our police force: "Mr. Forster
accuses the Boston police of being corrupted by Irish politicians. It is
sufficient to say of this that no Bostonian charges it, or believes it.
Boston is proud of her police force, and boasts of it too strongly and
too frequently, our neighbors think, for good taste. But whatever may be
thought of our egotism in this respect, it is well known and understood
by our sister cities that Boston claims to have the best police force in
the world. The Irish-American in Boston is a loyal citizen, proud of the
city, proud of the State, and proud of the whole country; and his
heart's desire and prayer to God is, that his motherland may become as
free and prosperous and happy as these United States. The trouble with
Mr. Forster, as he shows himself in the _Nineteenth Century_, is that
Parnell is on top, and Forster is afraid he will stay there. Gladstone
wants to give Ireland land reform and home government. Herein he
believes is true statesmanship. In this way he knows that every interest
of the empire, even its integrity, would be best subserved. But the
Queen and the Tories oppose him and may defeat him. Let us hope that the
hypocritical lament of Arnold Forster in the _Nineteenth Century_ is the
last wail of a lost cause. Or will he tell us next that ten thousand
howling Englishmen in Trafalgar Square is another Irish conspiracy?"
Congressman Lovering writes: "The wholesale charges against Irishmen in
America will fall flat here as an exaggeration, and a distortion of
facts, in a vain attempt to charge against the Irish race the misdoings
of individuals, who may have chanced to have been Irishmen, and the
effort is entitled to all the contempt it deserves."
Police Commissioner Osborne says: "Knowing very little about the force
before I became a member of the board of police, I can only speak of the
time during service, and will say most emphatically that no
interference, or tampering, with our force by politicians of _any_
nationality has come to my knowledge. And from what I have seen and know
I firmly believe that our force is equal to, if not superior to, the
police force in any city in the United States." To which Chairman
Whiting of the board adds: "I am happy to say that I have no knowledge
whatever of any tampering with the Boston police, as stated in said
clipping or otherwise."
_New York Irish-American_: In eliciting such valuable expressions of
opinion, _The Republic_ has done a very good work; though, at this
period of their connection with the United States, our people, as a
component element of the population, do not need to produce certificates
of character before any tribunal to which an honest appeal may be made.
They have wrought out an excellent and enduring character for themselves
by their purity of life in private, and their labors and sacrifices in
every field of public duty, and stamped it so indelibly on the history
of the Republic, that no hostile or malign influence can ever erase its
strong and well-defined impression. To connect this work, however, with
the refutation of such a paltry scribbler as this Arnold Forster,
appears to us a waste of labor,--like crushing a _ciarog_ with a
battering-ram. The Englishman was only following his low, natural
instincts when he ambitiously engaged in the task to which so many of
his countrymen before him, like Froude, have devoted themselves, since
the time of that arch-falsifier of history, "Giraldus Cambrensis," and,
as his original stock of knowledge of our people (especially here in the
United States), must have been practically _nil_, he was compelled to
draw on the store of old, worn-out libels against us, that have so often
been refuted both by historical facts and direct evidence; but which are
as persistently revamped and repeated by every scribbler who desires to
vent his spleen, and exhibit his ignorance with regard to a race, that
all fair-minded students of humanity admit has held its own with any
other on earth, through centuries of adverse circumstances. The fellow
is even worse than a libeller, for he began his attacks on the Irish
people as an anonymous letter-writer in the columns of the English Whig
and Tory organs, professing to give statements with regard to events in
America that were within his own knowledge. The trained professional
acumen of the leaders of the Irish Party quickly fixed the identity of
the hidden assailant; and about the same time that "Buckshot" Forster
himself was cowering before the assembled Commons of England, under the
scorching invective of Parnell, this same Arnold Forster--his putative
son and secretary--was being dragged into the light of public criticism,
and exposed in his true character as a base defamer of men whose shoes
he is not worthy to touch. In revenge for this double punishment he has
since collected the slanders he first peddled at retail, and in this
_Nineteenth Century_ brochure has flung them, _in globo_, at his
chastisers. But he is not worthy of notice; his plane of thought and
idea is too low for even contempt to reach him; and argument with him
would be wasted. _Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle_--"The game is not
worth the candle."
_Boston Daily Globe_:--It was in some respects a fortunate thing that
Mr. Arnold Forster uttered his recent malicious slander upon the Irish
race. It has given opportunity for banishing, by the production of
undeniable facts refuting some of Mr. Forster's specific statements, the
vague innuendoes ever and anon set afloat by those who imagine that all
who oppose British oppression must be wrong, because "it's English, you
know."
Rev. Father Cronan, editor of the _Buffalo Catholic Union_, among
others, vigorously replies to Mr. Forster, and in a vein somewhat
different from any we have yet noticed in connection with the
discussion. Says Father Cronan in the _Union_:
"Mr. Arnold Forster told more truth than he suspected, and
paid a compliment he never intended, when he wrote in the
_Century_ that Irishmen were 'born conspirators.' Divesting
the expression of the stupid sting and insult intended by its
misuse, it simply means that Irishmen are born _inspired_
with a love of justice, and that this inspiration, being
brutally thwarted by seven centuries of English misrule,
becomes a _conspiration_ (that is the true word, Mr. Forster)
of all Irishmen to effect the ends of freedom and
self-preservation. Show us a born bondsman and we will show
you 'a born conspirator,' or, a born fool, if he be not a
conspirator, in the sense we have explained. Let the nations
who rule by might instead of right learn at last that they
are the creators and perpetuators of conspiracy. If there is
shame in the sound, it is their shame. If ruin and riot in
the result, it is their handiwork. The day has gone by, long
ago, when suffering peoples are to be awed into silence and
submission to injustice by the silly outcries of salaried
soothsayers. There is no reason on earth, or in heaven, why
people should submit to be slaves. If they cannot boldly
burst the bonds that encircle them, they will triturate them
to dust by friction against the granite hearts of their
masters."
Americans who revere the memory of Jefferson and Adams and Patrick Henry
and their fellow "conspirators" will agree with Father Cronan, that
"conspiracy" by Irishmen for the freedom of their native land is a noble
thing. Mr. Forster belongs to the class which considered Sam Adams the
arch-conspirator of his day. Every attempt to bribe him or to frighten
him was met with disdain. Because he could not be bought, England
applied to him the meanest of epithets. So, to-day, England slanders the
Irish leaders and the Irish race because they cannot be coaxed or driven
into desertion of their country's cause.
But England found that misrepresenting the character of the Americans
was a costly proceeding. She made them the more determined and at the
same time deceived herself. A like effect will be caused by this latest
attack upon the Irish race.
* * * * *
A pompous fellow was dining with a country family, when the lady of the
house desired the servant to take away the dish containing the fowl,
which word she pronounced fool, as is not uncommon in Scotland. "I
presume, madam, you mean the fowl," said the prig, in a reproving tone.
"Very well," said the lady, a little nettled, "be it so. Take away the
fowl, and let the fool remain."
Orders of Knighthood.
We owe to the _Westfalische Merkur_ some interesting remarks on the
Order of Christ recently conferred by Leo XIII. on Prince Bismarck.
Although there is no strictly fixed precedence among European Orders of
Knighthood, yet by common consent there is a kind of relative rank among
these numerous honorary distinctions. Thus the first place is generally
conceded to the Golden Fleece, nowadays conferred by both the Emperor of
Austria and the King of Spain, and the above-mentioned Papal Order of
Christ. Next may be said to rank the Garter of England; the Black Eagle
of Prussia; the Order of Maria Theresa, Austria; and that of St. Hubert,
Bavaria. As, however, the Order of Christ is given almost exclusively to
sovereigns, and only in most exceptional cases to distinguished
subjects, the conferring of the same on the Iron Chancellor is a most
unusual honor.
The history of the Order is a curious one. Its origin is to be sought in
one of the Mediaeval Militant Orders of Knights, founded in 1317 by
Denis, King of Portugal, upon the ruins of the Great Order of the
Templars--suppressed in 1312--in order to defend the empires of the
Algarves against the Moors. The Order, under the title of "Knights of
Jesus Christ," was confirmed by Pope John XXII. by a Bull of March 14th,
1319, which prescribed for them the rule of St. Benedict and the
statutes of the Cistercian Order, besides granting very extensive
privileges. The Abbot of Alcobaza was commissioned, in the Pope's name,
to receive the oath of the Grand Master. The Pope reserved to himself
also the right of admitting candidates to the Order, and extending its
privileges and insignia to others. The Knights had to take the three
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, till, in 1500, Pope Alexander
VI. released them from this obligation, for the old crusading zeal had
died out, and the Knights lived in the world like ordinary seculars.
Meanwhile, repeated victories over the Moors had rendered the Order very
rich. It possessed 450 commendatories, with a yearly income of over
1,500,000 livres. In 1550 Pope Julius III. attached the dignity of Grand
Master forever to the Portuguese Crown. In 1797, after several attempts
at reformation, the Portuguese Order was altogether secularized, and
became a simple civil Order of Knighthood reserved to nobles; in 1834
the greater part of the income of the Knights was confiscated. The
privilege reserved to the Holy See by John XXII., creating Knights of
the Order, was fully exercised by that Pope and his successors, for he
himself established a sister Order--_Ordine di Cristo_--in Italy, with
like privileges and customs; a broad white woollen mantle, and on the
breast a red cross with a small silver cross upon it. Pope Paul V. in
1605 gave the Papal Knights the rule of St. Augustine; but in course of
time the Order in Italy followed the course of the Portuguese branch,
and became the honorary distinction like all modern "Orders." The
Knights now wear a golden cross with red enamel, of which the ends run
out into two points.
The Holy See nowadays disposes of five honorary Orders of Knighthood:
that of Christ, referred to above, and consisting of only one class,
"Cavalieri;" that of St. Gregory the Great, founded by Gregory XVI., in
1831, and containing three classes: those of Grand Cross, Commander and
Knight; the Golden Spur, created by Pius IV. in 1559, also known as the
Order of St. Sylvester, and in two grades: Commanders and Knights,
styled _auratae militiae equites_; the Order of Pius, established by the
late Pontiff, with two classes; and, lastly, the Holy Sepulchre,
conferred by the Patriarch of Jerusalem by delegation of the Pope, but
also sometimes by the Holy Father himself.
Low-Necked Dresses.
[The venerable editor of the New York _Freeman's Journal_ has
the following article on "Vicious Customs and Costumes,"
which we recommend to some ladies who appear partially
dressed at some of our balls, "sociables," etc. The remarks
are as applicable to fashionable society in Boston, and
elsewhere, as they are in New York and other cities.]
The hours for social pleasures were never so late as at present. People
do not think of showing themselves at any "evening" entertainment until
midnight. The strain of this kind of thing on young people who have
necessary duties to perform the next day, tends to lower vitality and
shorten life. In London--from which city nearly all the fashions
unsuitable to our climate and life come--there is a large "leisure
class" who can sleep into the afternoon without shirking any urgent
demands. Here, where even the richest men have to work, these late hours
are preposterous. But they are English--and, rather than not be English,
the young man of to-day prefers listless days and a frequent resort to
brandy and soda--English, too!--and other stimulants, to keep him up to
his work.
Another fashion, which has become so rampant as to need a general and
continued objection to it, is that of wearing low-necked gowns. A little
more firmness in defying the demands of fashion would, perhaps, save
some woman's life. But it is very hard for a woman to be firm on a
question of fashion. Queen Victoria insists on low-necked gowns;
therefore all the American world of fashion insists that the Queen's
mandate shall be followed. At a dinner or dance, the sight is sometimes
appalling; for what can be more shocking than the apparent attempt of
decent women, old and young, lean and fat, to show their shoulder
blades? Like _Katisha_, in the "Mikado," they seem to think that the
possession of a "beautiful left shoulder blade" will atone for all other
defects. The boxes at the opera, and all the places where fashionable
people sit, offer a startling picture of how immodest modest women can
be when fashion demands it. A writer in a recent New York _Evening
Telegram_ says:
"When one goes to the opera and sweeps the tiers of boxes
with an opera-glass for a moment, the question comes: Is it
proper to look? Upon careful examination and scientific
computation, it is pretty certain that of the ladies at the
opera in any five boxes adjoining one another, not less than
one out of every three is three-quarters naked above the
waist--that is, of the square inches of surface, from the
waist up, three-quarters are exposed to the view and to the
air. While this is true of opera-goers, of those who go to
balls it is far worse. The percentage of semi-nude figures
increases until fully ninety-five per cent. is reached."
This picture is not exaggerated. The other night, at the opera of
"Lohengrin," given by the American Opera Company, the dresses on the
stage are described as modesty itself, compared with those in the
audience. The "lady" who appears half undressed at a fashionable
assembly, goes to church the next morning demurely and modestly, to
think gently during the sermon of the vices of her neighbors, without
once reproaching herself for an immodesty which is worse than Pagan, and
which, when attempted by other than respectable women, is regarded as a
shameless incentive to evil thoughts and evil deeds.
Probably, if there were any women in New York of sufficient firmness and
social influence to stop this ape-like imitation of usages which, aside
from their grave evils, are out of keeping with the habits of life made
necessary in a climate which is not at all English, the custom might be
relinquished. But there is none such; and the only pause that can be
given to a whirl of fashion which perilously touches hell will be number
of other deaths from late hours, mental and physical lassitude, and
consequent heart and lung afflictions.
What is good in English usages may be imitated with advantage. But
Americans will never be thoroughly independent of England until they
arrange their habits to suit a climate whose caprices are so sudden and
unexpected as to deal death to the unwary.
It is regrettable that the craze for low-necked dresses should be
allowed to sweep away women who are bound by their "social duties" to
appear in a costume which must have been invented by one of those
females whose name is unmentionable here--from whom the women who
imitate them turn in horror.
Columbus and Ireland.
One of the speakers at the dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in
this city referred to the Irish missionaries in Iceland and to the
member of the crew of the Pinta[3]--ship in which Columbus sailed from
Palos--who was born in Ireland. This is astounding information.
Thirty-three years ago the learned Digby wrote in his "Road of
Travelers," Compitum., Book I, page 380, as follows: "When the Northmen
first landed in Iceland they found there Irish books, Mass-bells and
other objects which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called
Papas. These Papae, fathers, were the Clerici of Dicuil, the Irish Monk,
who wrote in the year 823, a treatise, 'De Mensura Orbis Teriae.'"
The late Dr. O'Callaghan of New York, called attention to the native of
Ireland, being among the crew of the Pinta, about fifteen years ago. The
book referred to by him is entitled, "Collecion de los Viages y des
Cumplimientos, Madrid, la imprenta real ano de 1825." (Collection of
Voyages and Duties Discharged, Madrid, royal printing office, year of
1825.)
The crew list of the Pinta la tripulacion can be seen at Madrid, bearing
the ancient Connaught patronymic of Eyre, as follows:--
"Guillermo Ires, natural de Galway, Irelanda," no "de" or "en" before
the word Irelanda.
Eyre Court is not far from famed Ballinasloe, in the County Galway, and
Eyre Square, visitors to the capital of the west of Ireland know, is the
principal one in the town of Galway.
The Eyre family is "as old as the hills of Connaught," and were as
intimate with Spain as we are with Cuba to-day, before Columbus was
born. Up to and after the death of Elizabeth of England all the Catholic
gentry of the "ould stock" were educated in Spain and Portugal.
Yours, etc.,