AMERICA AND THE IRISH REBELLION.
[TO THE EDITOR 07 THY SPECTATOR."] Sre,—I have been told that it is no use to write anything to the London papers that savoured of being pro-German, as it would not be published, but I said I didn't believe it, so am taking a chance. What many do not understand here is why you have one kind of justice for the North of Ireland and another kind for the South and West of Ireland. As the New York World said a day or two ago, if Carson had been imprisoned when he rebelled two yeare ago, the uprising in Dublin would not have taken place. The following is from Collier's Weekly, viz. :— " Disinterested observers in this country will not fail to compare the rigid severity of the treatment of the poor schoolmaster Pearse and his following of dreamers and striplings with the amiable tolerance shown two years ago to the politicians and generals who were ready to offer armed resistance to the enforcement of an Act of Parliament which met with their disapproval. The Irish rebel leader of that day, Sir Edward Carson, is one of the most influential men in English public life. He selects Cabinet officers and threatens Ministries, while the rebel leader of to-day is shot within a few hours after his surrender, and his body thrown in the quicklime. Of course, it is no business of our people how Great Britain deals with her domestic problems. But there can be no doubt that the executions have created an impression amounting to disgust in this country. It has distinctly modified public sympathy with Great Britain. The world will listen attentively from now on to English protests against the summary shooting of spies in Belgium and the massacre of students at Louvain, acts for which the Germans could plead a greater degree of military necessity than for the killing of these visionaries. We pity Mr. Redmond. His position as leader of the Nationalists was difficult even before this occurrence, now it must be almost impossible."
The Boston Globe says : " The question of justice to Ireland seems so be a matter of geography." The very conservative Boston Transcript says, referring to the execution of the rebels : " It will probably fix public sentiment in the United States, it is not the first sign of incapacity on the part of the Coalition Government."—I am, Sir, &o., [The quotations show the writers in the newspapers mentioned to have been very badly informed. Sir Edward Carson did not rebel. If he had, the Home Rule Government would have arrested him. They commanded a majority in Parliament. How can a man who urges the right of those whom he represents to retain their status, and not be cast out of the community in which they were born, be called a rebel ? Suppose the Southern States, instead of seceding, had refused to be driven out of the Union, would Mr. Lincoln have denounced them as rebels 1—En. Spectator.]
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