13 MAY 1916, Page 12

CIVIL SERVICE AND REBELLION.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] 110,—I desire to express entire agreement with the letter of " C. B." ander the above heading. I am old enough to remember the " Rising " at Tallaght and the Fenian trouble—none of these a tithe of the Importance of this last outbreak. My recollection is that on all these occasions and in the Boer War the Irishman, whatever his creed or home politics, always keeps his sacramentum militare. They always did their duty—did not shoot officers in the back and did not desert. I believe that distorted history and exaggerated traditions have pro- duced immense evil. Government ought to see to it that history taught under the Intermediate Board was comprehensive and truthful enough to teach all classes under their control, that the sins of the past were shared by both parties. Nothing is gained by suppressing— to avoid offence—facts as certainly true as the Bill of Rights and the