stupid," if not less "morally wrong." But, of course, if Mr. Henry
George had been elected Mayor of New York, as he came so near to being
in November 1886, and Mr. Davitt had returned to Ireland with the
prestige of contributing to place him in the municipal chair of the most
important city in the New World, Mr. Dillon and his Parliamentary
friends would probably have found it necessary to accept a much less
conspicuous part in the conduct of the campaign.

It was on the 17th of October 1886 that Mr. John Dillon, M.P., first
promulgated the "Plan of Campaign" at Portumna, in a speech which was
promptly flashed under the Atlantic to New York, there to feed the
flame, already fanned by the eloquence of Dr. M'Glynn, into a blaze of
enthusiasm for the apostle of the New Gospel of Confiscation.

Had the "Plan of Campaign" then been met by the highest local authority
of the Catholic Church in Ireland, as Henry George's doctrine of
Confiscation was met in New York by Archbishop Corrigan, it might never
have been necessary to issue the Papal Decree of April 1888. But while
the Bishop of Limerick unhesitatingly denounced the "Plan of Campaign"
as "politically stupid and morally wrong," the Archbishop of Dublin
bestowed upon it what may be called a left-handed benediction. Admitting
that it empowered one of the parties to a contract to "fix the terms on
which that contract should continue in force," the Archbishop actually
condoned the claim of this immoral power by the tenant, on the ground
that the same immoral power had been theretofore exercised by the
landlord! Peter having robbed Paul from January to July, that is, Paul
should be encouraged by his spiritual guides to rob Peter from July to
January!

That the Catholic Church should even seem for a time to speak with two