the truth. The Irishman, whether he be a peasant, a farm labourer, however low in the scale of Anglicization he may have sunk, is still in imagination, if not a

le ages was that the man who robbed him was such a boor. Insult was added to injury in that the oppressor was no knight in shining armour, but a very churl of men; to the courteous and cultured Irishman a "bodach Sassenach," a man of low blood, of low cunning, caring only for the things of the body, with no veneration for the things of the s

essant country that more in sorrow than in anger he will grant you, was misgoverned in the past. That was its misfortune, never his fault. This is a steadily recurring phase of the fixed hallucination in his blood. Ireland never is, but only always has been cursed by English rule. He himself, the Englishman of the day, is always a simple, bluff, good-hearted fellow. His father if you like, his grandfather very probably, misgoverned Ireland, but never he himself. Why, just look at him now, his hand never out of his pocket relieving the shrill cries of Irish distress. There she stands, a poverty-stricken virago at his door, shaking her bony fist at him, Celtic porter in her eye, the

-day what it always has been-to get the stranger out of the house. It is no shame to Ireland or her sons, that up to this they have failed in each attempt. Those attempts are pillars of fire in her history, beacons of light in the desert of sin

ld have treated Ireland as we have done had she lain no

d cataclysm." World cataclysms up to this have not reached Ireland-England intervened too well. She has maintained her hold by sea power. The lonely Andromeda saw afar off the rescuing Pe

our save across a sea held by a relentless jailor, would she have b

nce. Italy, no more than Ireland, could have shaken herself free had it not been for aid from abroad. The late Queen Victoria saw clearly the parallel, and as hereditary custodian of Ireland, Her Majesty protested aga

taly would be a disgrace to this country. That the French would attach the greatest importance to it and gain the greatest advantage from it, there can be no doubt of. But how will England appear before the world at the moment she is struggling for her sup

, for us to force Austria to give up her lawful possessions. What shall we say if Canada, Malta, etc., begin to troub

off the hand that held her "quivering in our grasp," so

be admirable were it not so criminal in intention and effect, has bent all her efforts, all her vigour, an unswerving policy, and a pitiless sword to extend the limits of exclusion. To approach Ireland at all since the first English Sovereign laid hands upon it was "quite imm

rs War he waged with England, she sought to obtain from him an abjuration of "foreign aid," chiefly "that of the Spaniard." "Nothing will become the tra

road it would have, the Queen thought, the effect that "in

Irishman came close together O'Neill's offence was indeed "fit to be made vul

ue, that there came some munition." It was because O'Neill was a statesman and knew the imperative need to Ireland of keeping

ethan Englishmen wh

lls they are woefully mistaken. The British fleet is their one shield. It if be broken Ireland will go down. They may well throw themselves heartily into the common defence,

rom Germany that freedom may be feared, Ireland is warned against the German. When, three hundred years ag

, offering excellent terms, and for this purpose the Viceroy sent messengers twice to O'Neill, saying among other things, that Your Majesty is making peace with the Queen, and that his condition will be hopeless. At other times he says that no greater misfortune could happen to the c

lay only through Europe. He again and again begged the Spanish King to sever Ireland and erect it into an allied State. He offered the crown of

sent his son as King to Ireland, her fate had been settled then instead of remaining t

ing note of warning that to leave England in possession of Ireland meant the downfall of Spain. The Iris

rown to a Spanish prince. "But inasmuch as we have felt to our great and indescribably harm the evil doings and crimes of those whom the Queen of England is in the habit of sending amongst u

ow "he will obtain much advantage and glory by so doing," and finally they begged "would that Your Majesty would appoint the Archduke of Austria, now Govern

reland in 1596, "now or never" would indeed have become "now and forever." Had Philip II carried out his often

the great service that would be rendered thereby to God and His Church, and the great advantage

the Archbishop of Dublin, alr

o see and understand the state of the country misr

lies of her agents abroad were turned to her own ridicule. To Essex, her Viceroy, she wrote: "Tyrone hath blaze

the last great army sent, she wrote (September 17th, 1599): "To trust this traitor upon oath is to trust the devil upon his religion. Only this we are sure (for

hile ostensibly conceding the terms of the Irish princ

a year earlier (Oct. 18, 1596), replying to the special envoy sent by the king, they said: "Since the former envoys left us we have used every means in our power, as we promised we should do, to gain time and procrastination from one day to another. But how could we impose on so clever an enemy so skilled in

tter ruin of their country shows. That men fighting for Ireland had to meet Elizabeth and her statesm

clude this treaty, yielding some of their grants in the present; and when Her Majesty has made secret p

h patriot was "assassination." Poison frequently took the place of the knife, and was often administered wrapped in a leaf of the British Bible. A certain Atkinson, knowing the religious nature of Cecil, the Queen's Prime Minister, the founder of a long line o

Florence MacCarthy More, the great MacCarthy. Elizabeth's Prime Minister piously endorsed the deed-"

e the true exercise of religion among her loving subjects." As O'Neill was still in the field with a large army, she prudently pointed out, however, that the time "did not permit that he should intermeddle by any severity or violence in matters of religion until her power was better established there to countenance his action." That the character of their adversary was faithfully appreciated by contemporary Irish opinion stan

of policy the help so often promised by the King of Spain. They showed him not only by their valour on the field but by their sag

a letter of Philip III to O'Neill, dated from Madrid, Dec. 24th, 1599, we read: "Noble and well beloved I have already written a joint letter to you and your relative O'Donnell, in which I replied to a letter of both of you. By this, which I now write to

g to realize the greatness of his responsibilities. But the evil struck deeper than to Ireland alone. Europe lost more than

ohenzollern, instead of by a Spanish Hapsburg, how

last native Princes, she stands to-day as in the days of Philip III, if an outcast from European civilization non the less rejecting the insular tradition of England, as she has rejected her insular Church. And n

ria was close and long sustained. Irish monasteries flourished in the heart of Germany, and Ge

t language on what seemed its bed of death owes much of its present day revival to German scholarship and culture. Probably the foremost Gaelic scholar of the day is the occupant of the Chair of

ithout interest, even fame, in the centres of German academical culture. But that the German S

to the Earldom of Desmond, wrote to Phil

king; for we hope, with God's help Your Majesty will be victorious and conquer and hold as your own the kingdom of Ireland.-We trust in God that Your Majesty and the Council will weig

of blood. It is the law of God. No people who clu

ndid "scorners of death," the lads and young men of Mayo, who awaited with a fearless joy the advance of the English army fresh from the defeat of Humbert in 1798. Then, if ever, Irishmen might have run from a victorious and pitile

country's freedom, went to meet the army of England, as the Protestant Bishop, who saw them, says:-"run

her uncle, the King of the Belgians, wrote thus of

lesson or they will begin again." (Page 223, Vol. II, Queen Victoria's letters.) Her Majesty was profoundly right. Ireland needed that lesson in 1848, as she needs it still more to-day. Had Irishmen died

s Lever on Germany so shall end it here with

f Europe on the grave of a generation who believed that "no

cowardice and poltroonery of the patriots. Even Italians can

ds. It is that reproach that h

tion. It is this fiery shirt of Nessus that has driven our strong men mad. How to shed our blood wit