Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-11
The Mutual Dislike Of England and
ireland.


The most disheartening feature in this
new struggle between Ireland and Brit
ain-for 1t is q struggle. though the field
is, as it were, law court instead of the
roped lists lis the evidence it affords,
evidence, We hope, only apparent, that
the irreconcilability Of the two nations,
their mutual, steady dislike, has not its
basis in history alone. 1t has always
been attributed by observers TO the long
oppression one race has suffered from
the other. and we may hope this is true,
for then the hatred will die away at last
but the evidence does not point in that
direction. On the contrary, the evi-
dence, whether misread or not, suggests
the belief that the distaste which divides
the peoples is unaffected by fair dealing,
by justice. and even by sympathetic con-
sideration.
There is no puzzle in history like this
distaSte, so inconvenient, so senseless,
and so incuTable The French have got
rid of a similar one between themselves
and the Bretons, the Scotch LOwlanders
have ''Tedded-up" their quarrel of ages
with the Highlanders, We ourselves have
established a lasting smity. if not friend
ship. with the Welsh. But the Irish are
irreconcilable, and no theory explains the
cause. One man talks of race, and then
acknowledges that the most irrecOncila-
BILE of Irishmen are the half -bloods, like
the men of Tipperary. Another talks of
religion, and fails TO explain why, ex-
cept on religious questions, English
Catholics are English of the English and
politically no trouble at all. A third
talks history to US, but does not deny
that while their history, in regard to each
other, has changed, the dislike of the
two peoples has not. 1t is a most
dsheartening puzzle. all the deeper
because unless it is solved
future history in both coun-
tries must be full of sufferiugs, and be-
cause those who see the evil most clearly
have least certainty as to its cause. We
certainly have little. We have a con-
viction, deepening every year. that the
dislike, while constantly absent between
individuals of the TWO peoples, is as re-
CARDS their aggregates as strong as ever,
and extends to classes which suffer little,
and are as thoroughly reasonable on all
other subjects as any in the world. We
suppose the explanation is the old one
the incompatlbility of Valentine and
Orson, of reconciling the nervous, ex-
citable, poetic organization to the duller,
stronger, and more barbaric. We sup
pose, difficult as it is to see oneself from
the outside. that the Irishman still re-
CARDS the Englishman, to speak with Of
tenslve plalnnesS, as a strong man,
sometimes benevolent, more often only
Just, but all the while thick witted
brute, who will not understand
what is wanted quickly enough, who
when he grants, grants without sym
pathy, and when he refuses, refuses with
a sort of stOlid surprise, unutterably pro-
voking, at having been asked Nothing
irritates quick witted race like being
governed by slow witted one, and that,
the feeling of the Athenan for the
Roman, of the Italian for the Austrian,
of the Greek for the Turk, is the feeling
of the Irishman for the Briton. 1t
seems incredible to the latter, who is
aware that his own capacity in many
directions is higher than the Irishman's,
and who. conscious of his own inner
kindliness, never can, see any more than
a Prussian can, how insufferably AFRO
CANT and stolidly inmovable he appears
to other people, and especially to PEG
pie who read him through the light of
that exaggeration of himself, the ruling
caste of Ireland. The caste are, to
1rishmen, the English.
The English dislike for the Irish is
more applicable, and. we are happy to
believe, possibly more durable. 1t is not
founded on any rooted antipathy of
character. The Englishman is always
insular, always borne, and never cordial
ly likes any nation not himself over
again, but he has a power of liking, in
degree, people very different from
himself when not directly hostile. We
believe it just to say, though the state
ment may be questioned, that since the
great war Englishmen have learned
distinctly to like the French, to sympa-
thize with Italians, and to regard the
Greeks, a most widely different PEG
pie, with perfect liberation. They
may like the Irish yet, when the causes
OF difference disappear but at present
they dislike them, not intensely, but still
with certain obviousness. OF all the
small vices and foibles, nagging exasper-
ates them most, and the Irish are nag
gers. My people," said one of the
most sensible Nationalist we have ever
known to the writer long before this
struggle "have genius for worrying
and may tire you out get" 1t is quite
true, and quite natural besides A quick
witted race in the grasp of stronger
and stupider one, half afraid of it, yet
half determined on equality, is sure to
take to worrying, worriting, nagging-
any word will do, when we all know
the thing-and the Irish have acquired
the art in perfection.