Some of the Irish Tory papers are trying to raise—on
strictly Nationalist grounds—an opposition to General Sankey's appoint-, ment to the Chairmanship of the Board of Works. Though General Sankey is admitted to be an Irishman, it is objected that he has been a long time absent from his country ;—not quite so long, however, as Marshal MacMahon, who in true Nationalist circles is, nevertheless, regarded as the typical Irishman of the age. General Sankey has been appointed to office, as we believe, precisely because he possesses the qualifications necessary to make the Irish Public Works De- partment a powerful engine of the policy of such measures as the Tramway's Act. He has learned on the large scale of Mysore and Madras what public works can be attempted with advantage, in a country periodically swept by famine and having' deficient communications. His conduct during the famine in his district is said to have shown conclusively that he has, at aJlt events, an Irish heart.
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