The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

222 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL [1880
satisfaction of returning Parnell at the expense of the Tories/
Parnell was returned for all three constituencies— Meath, Mayo, and Cork City. He elected ultimately to sit for Cork. It may be asked, What was the attitude of the Catholic Church towards him at this crisis ? The majority of the priests were certainly for him, the majority of the bishops were against him. Cardinal McCabe, the late Archbishop of Dublin, was indeed a vehement opponent both of Parnell and of the League.
'The schemes of amelioration proposed by the League,' his Eminence said, ' are of such an order that no Government laying claim to statesmanship can for a moment entertain them/ The Archbishop of Tuam was in sympathy with the Archbishop of Dublin. "We have seen how the Bishops of Cork, Cloyne, Boss, and Kerry opposed him at the Cork election. Dr. Croke, the Archbishop of Cashel, was, however, then as later, in favour of a forward policy, and not hostile to the man who was the embodiment of that policy. Of the National Press, the * Nation* supported Parnell, the 'Freeman's Journal1 opposed him. He himself made light of his opponents, feeling that the masses of the people were at his back, and that the dissensionists would soon fall into line.
' But is the movement not opposed by the Nationalists (Fenians) and the priests ?' he was asked by an interviewer. ' Indeed it is not,7 he answered. ' I should despair of Ireland if the most active forces in the country arrayed themselves against a movement like this. Individual priests may have condemned chance indiscretions; individual Nationalists have protested that we should lie by while preparations are being made to cope with England by physical force, but that is all.