THE IRISH JEALOUSY OF ENGLISH SUCCESS.
[TO TR1 EDITOR Or TIM " SPICTATOR."J
SIR,—In a notice, excellently intended to be kind, in the Spectator of June 6th, of a paper of mine in the Contem- porary Review, you are good enough to draw the inference that the first root of Irish bitterness is a jealousy of English success. Permit me to point out that in the same page, and
only a few sentences removed, you yourself furnish a far truer explanation of how even the best meant English patronage has its bitterness for us. You are dealing with. a notice of the work of the late Mr. J. A. Take, who, you genially remark, " did more for Ireland than most of her native agitators," and you quote "an amusing account" by an English lady of how the peasants of Belmullet lied grossly as to their children's ages, " as a good plan to excite• sympathy" and get included in Mr. Tuke's emigration scheme.. Whereupon your observation is : "Is not that Ireland P" I am afraid you rather lay yourself open to the retort, "Is not that England P" For what is the fact? That the only person proved to have been guilty of fraud in reference to Mr. Tuke's assisted emigration scheme was not of the Belmullet peasant class, but a landlord of purely English blood (and, I believe, birth) who was detected in the act of defrauding the Government of emigration grants by false representa- tions. I am not aware that any Irishman has ever remarked of his misconduct, " Is not that England ? " still less hoped to obtain English goodwill by such a line of obser- vation. I make no remark as to Mr. Tuke's unhappy ex- periment in assisted emigration, although, having met as homeless mendicants in the streets of Toronto the victims of his unfortunate philanthropy, it would not be perhaps. difficult even for "a native agitator" to draw from my ex- periences a useful moral as to English attempts to teach Irishmen their own business. Mr. Take's intentions were undoubtedly as excellent as your own.—I am, Sir, &c.,
WILLIAM O'BRIEN. Mallow Cottage, Westport, Co. Mayo, June 15th.
[Mr. Win. O'Brien has entirely mistaken our meaning. We never even thought, perhaps rather stupidly, of the frauds involved in the tricks of the Belmullet peasantry. What struck us was the odd mixture of sweetness and untruthful- ness. Englishmen might have been just as untruthful, but they would have been ashamed and angry when they were- detected. The Irishmen were neither the one nor the other, but only "sweet." Their idea clearly was that a lie was a move in a game of chess, and if it was detected and de- feated they remained as pleasantly cheerful as before.—En. Spectator.]
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