me ago, and they have invented
a new church, called the United Presbyterians. John Knox himself was
never more violent, or more mischievous. The United Presbyterians will
do the business: they will render Scotland simply impossible to live
in; and then, when the crisis arrives, the distracted and despairing
millions will find refuge in the bosom of their only mother. That is
why, at home, we wanted no delay in the publication of the bull and the
establishment of the hierarchy."

"But the cardinal says no?"

"And must be followed. For these islands he has no equal. He wishes
great reserve at present. Affairs here are progressing, gradually but
surely. But it is Ireland where matters are critical, or will be soon."

"Ireland! I thought there was a sort of understanding there--at least
for the present."

The monsignore shook his head. "What do you think of an American
invasion of Ireland?"

"An American invasion!"

"Even so; nothing more probable, and nothing more to be deprecated by
us. Now that the civil war in America is over, the Irish soldiery are
resolved to employ their experience and their weapons in their own
land; but they have no thought for the interest of the Holy See, or the
welfare of our holy religion. Their secret organization is tampering
with the people and tampering with the priests. The difficulty of
Ireland is that the priests and the people will consider every thing
in a purely Irish point of view. To gain some local object, they will
encourage the principles of the most lawless liberalism, which naturally
land them in Fenianism and atheism. And the danger is not foreseen,
because the Irish political object of the moment is alone looked to."

"But surely they can be guided?"

"We want a statesman in Ireland. We have never been able to find one; we
want a man like the cardinal. But the Irish will have a native for their
chief. We caught Churchill young, and educated him in the Propaganda;
but he has disappointed us. At first all seemed well; he was reserved
and austere; and we heard with satisfaction that he was unpopular. But,
now that critical times are arriving, his peasant-blood cannot resist
the contagion. He proclaims the absolute equality of all religious, and
of the power of the state to confiscate ecclesiastical property, and not
restore it to us, but alienate it forever. For the chance of subverting
the Anglican Establishment, he is favoring a policy which will subvert
religion its