the decree is based upon the same! Not
only all the Roman correspondents but all the newspapers _avec le Tablet
en tete_ proclaim and report the same thing! I wish that my report and
all my letters had been studied and seriously considered, and that
action had been taken from the same! Above all, I had proposed and
insisted upon it, that whatever was necessary to be done ought to be
done with, and through, the bishops." Of this there is ample proof in
the earlier letters, and the proposal which he made was that the four
archbishops and one bishop for every province should be summoned to Rome
to "prepare and settle things." Writing on the Feast of the Epiphany in
1888, he said to Manning:--"I agree fully with your Eminence that the
true Nunciatura for England and Ireland is the Episcopate. If the
bishops do not know the state of the country they are not fit to be
bishops. If they do, what more can _una persona ufficiosa o ufficiale_
do for the Holy See?" And again--"I fully understand what your Eminence
adds, the English people tolerate the Catholic Church as a spiritual
body. The first sign of a political action on the Government would
rekindle all the old fears, suspicions, and hostility. It is a great
pity they do not realise this in Rome. And it is also a great pity that
English Catholics do not understand all this. I am sure that His
Holiness understands it well, but I share your fears that those about
him may harass him with the fickle and vain glory that would accrue to
the Holy See by having an accredited representative from England also."

It is impossible not to infer from this that the English Catholics were
engaged in an attempt to secure diplomatic recognition by Great Britain
of the Holy See, and that their anxiety to secure this was in some
measure connected with their desire to override the feelings and
opinions of the Irish Episcopate, but the overtures of Lord Salisbury
were as fruitless as those of Russell forty years before.

The last letter from Mgr. Persico to the English Cardinal, which has
been reprinted, reiterates the disclaimer of responsibility for the
action of the Vatican, in these words:--

"I had no idea that anything had been done about Irish affairs much less
thought that some questions had been referred to the Holy Office, and
the first knowledge I had of the decree was on the morning of the 28th
April, when I received the bare circular sent me by Propaganda. I must
add that had I kno