The withdrawal of American aid from the Land League shows
what was always suspected,—that the American-Irish were the, real instigators of violent action. They were not, in fact, de- sirous of any Land Act at all, except as a means to an end, or of any policy in Parliament; but fought for two objects,—
the declaration of a separate Republic in Ireland; and the seizure of the land, with a view to its ultimate " nationalise- tion," and the creation of a precedent which might be copied in America. - That the American-Irish should have mistaken the depth of the Separatist feeling in Ireland is natural enough, for the depth of a trim feeling cannot be easily gauged, but that they should have believed that Irish peasants, who are always so jealous of their land-rights and so distrustful of the State, would accept any project whatever for transferring land to the State, is almost unintelligible. We suppose the mistake is another illustration of the old truth that no man understands the temper of his own country so little as an exile from it. If there is re people in the world which will reject Socialism, when once its tenure is secure, it is the Irish.
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