AMERICA AND IRELAND.
(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—So far from its being the case, ae has been asserted, that the situation in Ireland is bringing the name of England into disrepute all over the world, in my judgment it-is having that effect on the name of the Irish people. As far as I have acquaintance in the States, the reports of the situation do not arouse the least sympathy for the Sinn Feiners nor hostility for the English. We have learned a good deal about Ireland since the war. We have not forgotten her treachery to the Allied cause, nor the mobbing of American soldiers in the streets of Cork, and we have learned that there are two sides to the Irish question. Further, it is not America's way to assassinate, to waylay, to ambush—what wars we fought were fought in the open. And, further, when a people has a wide measure of Home Rule offered, and will not even make the trial of it, preferring the present situation, it rouses in the minds of some a suspicion of their honesty in the whole mutter. It. rouses suspicion of deliberate prolongation of an evil situa- tion for other purposes than those which are ostensibly given, that evil situation being one which could be ended in a day,
and peace brought with Home Rule, certainly something worth
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