Evening star., 1921-03-27

may-care, romantic soul who help
ed to win most Of Enkland's bat
ties and was loyal to tho Dag.
y Now recent experiences have
taught him that there Is something
wrong in that picture. He finds
an unexpected cruelty in the Irish
people, the cruelty Of the peasant
mind brooding over old grievances.
unforgiving. relentless in the pur-
suit Of vengeance. Where he ex-
pected weakness he finds surpris-
ing strength-most obstinate re-
sistance to English reason"
Where he looked for sentiment,
especially in the war with Ger
many, he finds the hardest realism.
q most selfish refusal of allegiance.
and, worst Of all, black treachery
to old England in her hour Of need.
What is the meaning Of that?
What the devil" he asks. plaint-
lively, "is the matter with these
people"
It must be remembered that the
average Englishman knows very
little of Irish history. He does not
read it in his school books; he does
not find it in his newspapers. He
has not seen. as have before the
war. young men and girls in Dub
lin standing on orange boxes in
side streets on a Saturday night.
reciting old ballads about the bat
tie of the Boyne, the massacre of
Limerick, and other, episodes of
tragedy which are kept green in
the memory Of the people. He
knows very little of the way in
which Irish industries were delib-
erately killed by Castlereagh-
Cutthroat Castlereagh. as they call
him-nor of the frightful famines
which decimated the country be-
cause of that policy. nor of the
tragic evictions under English or
Anglo-Irish landlords, which made
thousands of families homeless and
foodless. nor of the penal laws
which made martyrs of their
priests and tried to kill a peoples
faith, nor of the executions and
falling Of Irish patriots through
many centuries Of resistance to
English rule.
The average Englishman has not
read much of that and does not
know that it is the Intellectual
food upon which the Irish feed
from early childhood, so that the
remembrance Of all that history is
black in their souls and flame of
passion in their hearts.
Vaguely the ordinary English
man knows and admits that Eng
land in the old days was rather
rough" on Ireland-he is unaware
that even as recently as 1880 there
were the evictions and terrorism
Of Clanricarde-and, generously,
as it seems to him, he wishes to
make amends. He thinks he has,
made amends by the Wyndham
land acts, which enabled the peas
ants to buy their land with Eng
lish credit, and for the life Of him
he cannot understand why the
Irish bark back to the past and re-
fuse to recognize that England is
a good friend.
He does not realize that any
thing England does for Ireland, or
has done or will do, is not received
with gratitude as a favor, or as
generous act. but is regarded as a
long-delayed concession forced
from US and as dust in the balance
compared with half a thousand
years Of tyranny. robbery and bru-
tality. He does not understand
that the claim for national inde-
pendence has never been abandon
ed for all that. time, and that
though the spark burns dim in
times Of misery, it flames up again
and spreads as it has now spread
again. like prairie fire through
out those island people. with their
frightful remembrance Of history.
their cherished faith, their undying
pride.
The average Englishman. Of
whom was one, was shocked to
his inmost soul by the rebellion of
1915. I shall never forget when
that dreadful news came to US on
the western front. We had been