A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 18 December 1869— Great Britain is not the only country in Europe with an Ireland. Every race except the Italian has made the effort to assimilate some popula- tion different from itself under more or less favourable conditions, and every race, except, indeed, the French, has failed . . . There has not, since the Revolution, been a serious insur- rection in France based on a desire for inde- pendence, and Napoleon can rely on a Stras- burgher or Savoyard as fully as on a Parisian or Norman. The Dane, however, with every advantage of title, of position, and of race, failed utterly to reconcile the Holsteiners; Prussia has rather superseded than reconciled the Poles of Posen; Russia has been defied by Poles when defiance was so hopeless as to resemble lunacy; and Austria in vain en- deavours to conciliate or even to negotiate with races who have obeyed her implicitly for centuries.
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