now developing itself in Ireland. Among the
ablest and the most earnest converts in America to the doctrine of the
new social revolution was the Rev. Dr. M'Glynn, a Catholic priest,
standing in the front rank of his order in New York, in point alike of
eloquence in the pulpit, and of influence in private life. Finding, like
Michael Davitt, in the doctrine of Henry George an outcome and a
confirmation of the principle laid down in 1848 for the liberation of
Ireland by Finton Lalor, Dr. M'Glynn threw himself ardently into the
advocacy of that doctrine,--so ardently that in August 1882 the Prefect
of the Propaganda, Cardinal Simeoni, found it necessary to invite the
attention of Cardinal M'Closkey, then Archbishop of New York, to
speeches of Dr. M'Glynn, reported in the _Irish World_ of New York, as
"containing propositions openly opposed to the teachings of the Catholic
Church."
It did not concern the Propaganda that these propositions ran on
all-fours with the policy of the Irish Land League established by Mr.
Davitt, and accepted by Mr. Parnell. What concerned the Propaganda in
the propositions of Dr. M'Glynn at New York in 1882 was precisely what
concerns the Propaganda in the programme of Mr. Davitt as mismanaged by
Mr. Dillon in Ireland in 1888--the incompatibility of these
propositions, and of that programme, with the teachings of the Church.
Upon receiving the instructions of the Propaganda in August 1882,
Cardinal M'Closkey sent for Dr. M'Glynn, and set the matter plainly
before him. Dr. M'Glynn professed regret for his errors, promised to
abstain in future from political meetings, and begged the Cardinal to
inform the authorities at Home of his intention to walk more
circumspectly. The submission of Dr. M'Glynn was approved at Rome, but
it was gently intimated to him that it needed to be crowned by public
reparation for the scandal he had caused. He disregarded this pastoral
hint, and when the Archbishop Coadjutor of New York, Dr. Corrigan, went
to Rome in 1883 to represent the Cardinal, who was unequal to the
journey, he found the Propaganda by no means satisfied with the attitude
of Dr. M'Glynn. Two years after this, in October 1885, Cardinal
M'Closkey died, and Dr. Corrigan succeeded him as Archbishop of New
York.
Between the first admonition given to the sacerdotal ally of Mr. George
in 1882 and this event much had come to pass in Ireland. The Land League
suppressed by Mr. Forster had been suffered to r
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