Mr. McCarthy then explained his great prescription for the restoration
of harmony. It was, in short, to summon to Dublin a sort of CEcumenical Council, a few months hence, of representatives of the Irish race, in Ireland, Great Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of Good Hope, and South America, refer their differences to this Council, and let this Council decide authoritatively on these differences,—the minority to submit implicitly to its rulings. We understand him to say that all the quarrels amongst the leaders here might be argued out before this Council, and its decrees be accepted, as if they were infallible and final. We have explained in another column why we think this grand proposal absolutely idle and vain,—indeed, a great addition to the difficulties of the Irish party, instead of an escape from them,—but we may add here that we do not believe either that these petty quarrels could be debated with any good effect before such a Council, or that the decrees of such a Council, if they were pronounced, would carry any authority with those who opposed them. Such a Council might be a very useful weapon in the hands of a strong leader. But without a strong leader to guide and use its pronouncements, it would merely enhance the confusion of tongues.
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