JOHN BRIGHT AND IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR."]
reading Archbishop Magee's Life again the other day I found a letter from John Bright, dated August, 1886, dealing with the Irish question and his action with regard to it. Ho says : "I have not been moved by fears as to the breaking up of the Empire, or as to the effect the proposed measure might have upon Great Britain. . . . Nothing seems more shock- ing to me than the scheme of handing over the loyal portion of the five millions of the Irish population to the government of the men who have disturbed and demoralised Ireland during the last seven years. . . . I have no faith in their conver- sion or their promises, and I will not trust any portion of my countrymen to their sense of justice or to their honour." Mr. Bright was a thorough-going Radical, but he was also a sturdy and honest Briton. The Englishman of that day felt, heart and soul, with him towards Irish loyalists. The Englishman of to-day doesn't care what happens to us. "Quantum mutatua ab
Previous page
