old rebel in his northern strength. Now I'll to bed, and to sleep if that groaning fool will let me."

The day was soon to come when Drake would make good his threat, and add to Ireland's history one more dark page whereon is written in letters of blood and fire the story of the taking of Rathlin Castle.

Evil times came quickly upon Antrim when Sorley Boy MacDonald was made to pay dear for his slighting of Elizabeth. He fortified himself in the mountain passes, but he sent the women and little ones of his clan to what he considered a safer and more desirable refuge in Rathlin Island; and to the children Rathlin became a vast playground, where all day long they wandered on the wondrous shore, or gathered the wild flowers scattered profusely by the hand of summer on the grassy slopes.

How could MacDonald know that English eyes were turned towards his island stronghold-eyes that were envious and filled with treasure-lust? But at last there came a day that made him leave the glens and hurry to the shore. With three frigates Francis Drake lay off Rathlin, bombarding the castle, and the besieged within their sadly-battered stronghold were praying for the succour that could not reach them.

Francis Drake was not the man to do things by halves. He had destroyed all the boats for miles along the Antrim coast, so MacDonald and his followers were forced to see Rathlin Castle fall without being able to aid their loved ones. All they could do was to rave up and down distractedly upon the cliffs at Fair Head, throwing frantic arms towards the island, and hurling curses, still more frantic, towards the English ships.

On the evening of the third day of the siege, the Castle became suddenly untenable, owing to the fall of the burning roof, and the garrison were forced to make instant choice between a fiery death and the mercy of the enemy.

The enemy, watching the effect of their fire, were ashore almost before the MacDonalds had left their tottering home, and then, lighted by the eager flames that momentarily shot higher, there began a scene of fearful slaughter.

Blood-lust and treasure-lust were at their height. The crash of falling walls and the roar of the wind as it fanned the fire, were sounds of terror enough, but through half the night the shrieks of women vainly fleeing before the cruel swords, rose dread and awful, to ring for ever in the ears of those who watched the burning from the Antrim shore.

Was there ever such a scene? Even at Cawnpore husbands

and fathers did not look on helpless. The morrow's sun rose bright and fair over the ghastly dead. The castle had ceased to burn. The lower story was intact and the door stood open. The heat was not too great to allow the sailors to enter. They made their way to the underground chambers, eager for the anticipated treasures, but little sign of wealth rewarded them. Then in an evil hour Drake bethought him of Rathlin Caves, and he and his men put out in boats to seek for treasure there, and treasure at last they found-MacDonald's greatest treasure, not as they had hoped, of silver and gold, but of flesh and blood, even as those treasures that the Christian Lawrence once presented to Valerian in Pagan Rome. Valerian, in his wrath, slew the holy Deacon; Drake in anger condemned those who had sought refuge in the caves. These, for the most part children, were driven out at the sword's point into the sea. In modern times Tantia Topee shot down his helpless victims, struggling in the Ganges. Just such mercy was the lot of the Rathlin Irish in those brutal days.

In the evening a fog blotted out the island from the watchers on Fair Head. When morning came the fog was gone, and the frigates were gone, too. A fearful stillness lay heavy over Rathlin.. Out on the waters a little boat was drifting shorewards to all seeming empty, but in her lay sleeping a little maid, the only one who had escaped from that terrible siege; and a second turning-point had come in the career of Drake's lieutenant. A fair-haired English girl had driven him to a sailor's life; and now a tiny daughter of the MacDonalds, with soft brown eyes and hair black as the raven's wing, had come between him and his commander, to sicken him for ever of the sea.

(To be continued.)

REL

"THE CHURCH AND LABOUR”

RELAND'S contribution to the literature of Social Science has hitherto not been large. The fact is not surprising seeing that, until within the last few years, the urgency of the Social problem has not been brought home to us. All our energies have been thrown into political and agrarian struggles, and the noise of our domestic battles has drowned the distant roar of the great war between Capital and Labour, that for years has been raging on the Continent, in America, and even in England-at our very doors. But to-day the war is transferred to our midst, we are swept into this world-struggle, and Irishmen, of whatever rank or class, must, ere it be too late, open their eyes to the issues that are at stake.

Many, no doubt, have gained their first inkling of the nature of these issues from the events of the last few months. They have become vaguely aware that something is very wrong, either in men's ideas, or in the state of Society, or perhaps in both. For some this will be, unhappily, but a temporary awakening. With the patching up of the present troubles there will open for them another spell of repose in the pleasant species of Fool's Paradise that they have constructed for themselves. But we may hope that many have been genuinely wakened up to the need of knowing something about the larger bearings of the Social Question, and something, to put it somewhat pompously, of the principles which form the basis of the social order. But earnest enquirers of this kind are discouraged and dismayed by the vastness of the literature of Social Science. They have neither the leisure nor the means to probe the problem to the bottom. They are chary, and rightly so, especially if they be Catholics, of venturing without a clue into the bewildering mazes of unfamiliar and conflicting theories. To such it is indeed a boon to have a helping hand stretched out by one who has studied apart from the din of conflict but not heedless of it, who has taken no side, and who himself stands on safe ground-the teachings and principles of Christianity:

*The Church and Labour. By the Rev. L. M'Kenna, S.J. Dublin: Office of the Irish Messenger. (Price, Is. in cloth; also issued in six penny pamphlets.)

In England this has been done and done admirably by Mgr. Parkinson's Primer of Social Science, and here, in the little book before us, we have the same thing done from an Irish standpoint, in a still more popular way and at a still more popular price.

A bare mention of the title and contents of Father M'Kenna's book might well be thought sufficient to secure for it a wide circulation in Ireland. But we are not a reading people and the education of our 'social sense is yet to make; so that it may be well to furnish the readers of the IRISH MONTHLY with a fuller notion of the exceptional interest and importance of this little volume.

At the outset the author admits the urgency of the problem, the greatness of the evils for which a cure, or, better still, a preventative must be sought. Here is the problem stated:

"The wealthy few now rule the world.* They have done so before, but never precisely in virtue of their wealth. They were patriarchs, patricians, chieftains of clans, feudal nobles, acknowledging responsibilities and bearing heavy burdens. To-day wealth, making no sacrifices for the public good, rules in its own right, and exercises a more despotic sway than any form of authority hitherto known. It has armies and fleets at command. It has myriads of placemen, or would-be placemen, in utter dependence. It is highly centralised, and can exert a great power at any point. It can at any moment cast thousands of households into intolerable misery. Yet, though centralised, it is not open to attack. It does not, as the kings of old, dwell in castles that can be stormed by an angry people. On the contrary it stands as the embodiment of legality, order, security, peace-even of popular will. Capitalism, using the work of the labouring classes, has vastly increased the wealth of the world; yet it strives to prevent these labouring classes from benefiting by this increase. It is constantly drawing up into itself that wealth and diverting it from useful purposes. To crown all, by its wild pursuit of pleasure and its ostentatious luxury, it renders still less bearable the lot of the dispossessed. Over against this small number of very rich men there are the vast masses of the poor. In Prussia two-thirds of the

"In France, for instance, a hundredth part of the nation owns half of the nation's wealth. In England and the United States one-tenth of the people hold nine-tenths of the whole country's property.” (p. 1). Cf. Chiozza Money, Riches and Poverty.

wage-earners receive less than 18s. a week.

Fifty per cent. of the American people are in severe poverty. At Paris every seventh and in London every twelfth person is a pauper dependent on State-aid."

In a word, as he says further on, "Society is sick to death." This is plain speaking, but has not Pope Leo XIII. said as much : “A very small number of rich men have been able to lay on the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.”* Applied to Ireland the state of affairs amounts to this: "A relatively large middle class struggling against great difficulties, and a relatively enormous proletariat struggling desperately on the verge of pauperism."

In face of this situation two solutions have presented themselves-Liberalism† and Socialism. Both are thoroughly bad, though, of the two, the former is probably the more dangerous (p. 5), and both are rejected by the Church, for the Church has, and must have, her own solution. This solution, the need of it, the justification for it, is admirably set forth by our author in his first lecture.

In the second he examines more particularly the relations between employer and employed, traces their history-especially in early and medieval Ireland-exposes the false notions current to-day, and outlines the answer to more than one burning question connected with them. With the question of the "living wage" and the "family wage" he deals fearlessly and frankly, but with the caution and the careful precision which the subject demands.

Considerations of space prevent us from pausing over the two following lectures which deal respectively with "The Working Woman," and "The Working Child." We pass on to the last two lectures which form, perhaps, the most valuable part of the book.

The fifth lecture deals with the attitude of the Church towards those various weapons of offence and defence which the working classes have forged for themselves. To begin with, there is the question of Trade and Labour Unions. On this point the author's views are unmistakable. Those who persist-if any yet persist-in seeing in the massing and

* Encyclical On the Condition of the Working Classes.

† Known in England as the Manchester School of Economics. The word, of course, has no reference to the Liberal political party..