The San Francisco call., 1898-05-22
FRESHMEN AND
 THE CONFLICT Majority in Sympathy With America. WAR IS ALL ABSORBING. CLANCY TELLS OF GREAT IN-
 TEREST TAKEN. Says England Does Not Relish the Fray Because It Makes Dear
 the Price of Meat and
 Bread.
CLANCY TELLS OF GREAT IN
 TEREST TAKEN.
BY J. J. CLANCY.

BY J. Js SLANNYs
 LONDON, May Tt is, I suppose, needless to say that the war has almost monopolized public attention in Ire land, as it has done to large extent in England also. The Irish newspa- pers and especially the Irish Daily h. dependent-the organ of the Independ- ent Nationalist or Parnellite party are devoting an unusually large amount of space to telegrams from Madrid and cables from New York. The Evening Herald-the evening edition of the h. dependent-came out for the first time on a Sunday. the morning of the bat tie of Manila, and sold, l understand, 20.OOO copies in the streets of Dublin in an hour or two; and both the 1nde- pendent and the Herald are daily puo- fishing portraits of Admiral Dewey and the other heroes of the war, especially on the American side. There can be no question as to the direction in which the sympathies of the overwhelming majority of Irishmen tend. They are heartily and enthusiastically with America. 4 small percentage sympa- tkize with Spain, not, apparently, be- cause they love America less, but be- cause they love Spain more; but they are very few in number and they can scarcely make themselves heard. They are represented by one or two ln the Irish representation in Parliament Those few residents belong to the anti Iosrnelifte party. Among the Parnell- i1e party there is no difference of opln- ion. and the first thing which Mr. John Redmond and his colleagues did on Monday last, after the splendid victory ar Manila had become definitely known, was to send a congratulatory cable gram to President Mckinley. l should not be surprised if, later on, pubic meetings were held in Dublin. Cork and other Irish cities, to give emphasis to the existence of the state or IeellhS lo which this circumstance testhes.
 In England the manifestation of feel ing is much less decided. The tie or l,jDship with America, of which the l1glish so often talk, does not play much of a part in this case. IT II dlu evidence of this fact would be forth coming by this time in unmlstakapie declarations, which have not been made I'D to the present. No single puDiic Y,Ian of rromfnence in English public fife has vet declared himself on the side of America
 The fact I believe to be that the se- cret sympathy of England, like that or
  win Spain Material interests counsel them all to go with the liberation ot Cuba but the monarchical sentiment, which animates them all, makes them at the same time tend toward Spalh. AS far as England in especial IS con cerned 1 doubt ii she has eyer mai nal. liked the idea of the United States dominating the western hemisphere. II cannot be forgotten that when the war of secession broke out her sym pdthies were almost entirely with Ihe South. not probably SO much because she loved slavery as because she de sired to see the Union discovered. The feeling that prompted her action then arImates her still. In addition to everything else she does not like the present war for a special reason-be- cause, namely, 1t IS calculated to sehd ID. and has already in fact sent up, tie price of food. A rise in the price oI corn and beef would no doubt bene- it. at least temporarily, her agricul- t.rsl population, but her manufactur- IrE interests are of much greater con- sequence to her. and the safety of these interests depends chiefly on low pilces for bread and meat. In this connection it may be mentioned that the whole commercial world of Eng land has been terribly excited within the past few days by the provisions of the United States war revenue bill, which would have raised the tonnage duties on British ships entering Ameri- can ports The very moment those provisions were made known here not only were the English representatives 2t Washington instructed to protest, but questions were asked in the House cf Commons fer the purpose of urging the Government to further action in the same direction.
 In Ireland the war is regretted for one reason and for one reason only. ,-.T1 4l,1 preparat tions which are being made by the Irish at home for the celebration Of the anniversary of 98. A chief part in that celebration was to have been taken by Irish American pilgrims It was fully expected that some thou sands at least of the Irish settled in the United States would come over this summer to visit the battlefields of the insurrection and the graves of the men who fell in the course of that attempt to secure the liberation of Ireland. The greatest and most widespread disap- pointment is now felt at the prospect of the war defeating the accomplish ment of this programme, especially as extensive preparations have been made Tn various places for receiving the in tended visitors. Nor can there be any doubt that, if the visitors from Amer ica flock over still, some remarkable demonstrations will take place, and that the war will be alluded to in un- mlstakable language in the speeches l which will be delivered. In Ireland, | too, no doubt, as l have said, there | IS minority which sympathzes with | Spain; but, as l have also said, it is a | very small one. Let me add that out l Slde the Nationalist masses it consists | of the Orangemen, whose invariable | tendency is to ally themselves with any power toward which the majority | of their countrymen have a friendly feeling: lrlsh-Americaps are their spe- cial detestation, and as America is the country of the Irish Americans they dislike the American nation also. But theV too count for no+b;ro 1r