Mr. Joseph MacGrath said that if the Republicans had not
lately impressed the public by their progress, the reason was that they recognized that a step in the wrong direction might be-the end-of a forward movement. He advised his .hearers • to work for the unity which Michael Collins always preached and which he would probably have achieved if he had lived. Most of the news which reaches us from Ireland confirms the tone of this -meeting. Republicanism is growing, if only because it is the only possible alternative to the policy of the Free State. The poor figure cut by the released Mr. De Valera does not alter this fact. Everv Government in power suffers a declension, swift or gradual, in popu- larity. The Free State Administration is unpopular ; consequently Republicanism goes ahead. We • cannot help being struck, however, by the fact that in none of these Republican speeches was -there any railing against Ulster. There was much talk of unity, and whether that unity was intended to comprise Ulster or not, it was a different thing from threats to Ulster.
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