Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-02
appears to be the implied conclusion of the
H;bbart 7 act,1res for 1882

HILBERT Lectures for 1852.
A sBoRr History OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; By
Charles George Walpole, NJ. A Ne" i9iA
Harper & Brothers San Francisco: A. l.. d W.
croft & Co.
The history of Ireland is mainly the history
of England's wrong.doing. No doubt tine
conduct of the Irish in these days Is OFTEN
calculated to bring them into disrepute' pus
nothing can be more certain than that tney
have been sedulously degraded, persecuteo'
and "worsened in every way by s'ate
policy rs remarkable for its tenacious and oo-
stinate stupidity as for its cruelty. Mr.. Wal
pole has not discovered any new facts IN
regard to Irish history but he deserves credit
for having put together the old facts In q
condensed and at the same time lucid and in
teresting manner. One of the things which
his short history makes very plain is point
which must have frequently puzzled these
who have given any thought to Irish history.
We refer to the fact that though succession
of colonizing movements have been carried
forward in Ireland for eight centuries, and
though every part of the island has In turn
been "planted I" with English immigrants, at
every new outbreak the prevailing tone OF
Irish opinion has still been hostile to Eng
land. The cause of this is fully set
forth here. The English Government
had no sooner "planted" Ireland, than
it began to adopt measures to ALLEVIATE the
recently transferred colonists. These latter,
for example, would introduce new industries
4 4ba r1roanarIfV nj
the island. But as soon as Irish products,
whether raw or manufactured, began to COM
pete in the English markets, the English
merchants and manufacturers demanded
measures which crushed the young Irish in
dustries, and at the same time trans
formed the Anglo-Irish colonists into
as bitter enemies Of England as those
whom they had been expected to leaven
with kindlier sentiments. This was repeated
so often that at last there was not corner
Of ireland in which hatred of England had
not become the dominant passion. If we can
imagiae the New England colonies being
subjected, in perpetuity, and without
chance of successful resistance, to tie same
kind of policy which led to their declaration
of independence, we shall understand how
the Irish came to be so turbulent and so
irreconcilsble. And they were outraged and
injured in many ways. A nation might
endure being oppressed as to its religion,
if its material interests were unassailed. Or
it might tolerate material inequities if its
liberty of conscience were unfettered. But
when to tyranny of coincidence is added
sweeping material il justice; when people
are prosecuted for their faith, and at the
same time ruined in their business; it is
inevitable that such a policy must produce
the fercest and most inextiDguishable hatred
in the sufferer. Mr.. Walpole's history
goes no farther than the end of the last GEN.
fury and the GROWING disgrace of corrupt
period, the accomplishment of the act of
union. The present century has added
many counts to the Indictment against Eng
land, but Mr.. Walpole's book suffices to ex-
plain much that is perplexing even in the
present situation, for it proves that the con-
dition of Ireland to-day is the result of
normal evolution.
ANTS, BEES AND wAsPs. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart,
etc. New York: d. Appleton & Co. San fran
cisco J. 7. White & Co.
Sir John Lubbock has done more than any
one to make ne acquainted with the social
hymenopters. In the present volume he has
recorded his investigations into the habits of
ants, principally, the chapters on bses and
wasps occupying comparatively little space.
And truly the ants are very wonderful peo-
pie. The more we know concerning them,
the less certain must we feel of mans pre-
eminence. For there are few indications of
intelligence, emotion, and capacity for pro-
gress, wanting in the actual manifestations of
ants. They lead ordered lives. They build
cities and houses and chambers. They store
up provisions. They have regular govern
ments. They have regular police and regular
armies. They make war, fight pitched bat
ties, deliver assaults upon walled places,
take prisoners, sack cities. They also possess
| slaves, and it ia seen that with them SIS with
| Humanity, slavery begets corruption and de-
stroys civilization. Some of the ant-races have
become SO dependent upon slave labor that
they cannot even feed themselves. Then,
again, they have friendships, they possess
means of communication, they know their
own people from strangers, they are moved
by affection, they nourish ermities,
they are compassionate, they assist
one another, they are full of resources.
they can invent remedies for unforeseen
accidents. In fac, when we consider
how very little of the lives of these little
creatures we can really understand even by
the closest observation, it must be perceived
that the difference between an ant and saw
age human being is distinctly in favor
of the former while even civilized
msn is by no means so far in advance of
the ant as he has been accustomed to boast
himself. It is not only the "sluggard" who
may proftably ''go to the ant, consider her
ways, and be wise" Nor do bees and
wasps less repay observation, though they
are less complete in their social habits and
development.
SOCIAL FQUALITY. SHORT STUDY IN A MIssI.G
SCIENCE. By w. H. Maock. New York: c. P
Putnam's Sons. Sail Francisco: A. L. Bancroft S
Co.
Mr.. Mallock has written some amusing and
clever books, but when he affects to be most
severely logical In isreasoning he oftenest pro-
duces the impression of crudity and crooked
ness OF thinking. In the present volume he
has attempted to show that the democratic
tendency and doctrine rests upon an erro-
neous conception; that the real tendency of
civilization is towards inequality of position,
not towards equality; and he undertakes to
prove that this is wonderful new discov-
cry of his own, which has escaped Herbert
Spencer, and Mill, and Smith, and all the
economists and philosophers, and in fact
everybody who has ever written about the
subject. As what Mr. MaIloch calls "the
desire for inequality is only his method of
design tiny the cnmnlar inHnancea urhinh i'm,