MR. CONGREVE ON TURKEY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
BIR,—It is only now that I have seen, in the Spectator of the 7th inst., the following extract from Mr. Congreve's article on 'Turkey :—" The closest parallel with the Turkish suppression of Bulgaria [sic] is afforded by our own suppression of the Irish rebellion in 1798."
Englishmen have such a habit of self-depreciation, and are so Ignorant of everything Irish, that this remark is likely to pass, but it is not much nearer the truth than Lord Beaconsfield's statement that Orientals do not practise torture. In the sup- pression of the Irish rebellion, there was much needless blood- .shed, much cruelty, and many instances of torture, but there was nothing in any degree approaching to the atrocities in Bul- garia. There was no destruction of towns and villages, and no massacres of women and children. Of the worst of all evils of war—outrages on women—I will not say there were no instances, but it is certain they were not general, for among such a people as the Irish, the memory of such wrongs would have been sure to remain in the popular remembrance, and there is little, if any, trace of this. The cruelties of 1798 have greatly increased the difficulty of reconciling Ireland, but had such atrocities as those in Bulgaria been committed in Ireland, at any time for a century past, forgiveness and reconciliation would be impossible.—I am,
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