To this eloquent and most powerful appeal,which produced the profoundest
impression on the House of Commons, the Irish Extremists returned an obstinate and even sulky "non pos- sumus." War between England and Ireland, they said, was only prevented by physical force, and they were determined to express in their speeches the internecine hostility which Ireland profoundly felt. That was Mr. Healy's own answer, all the more remarkable for the expression of personal admiration for Mr. Gladstone with which he prefaced it. It is a very strange answer. If the Irish people and the Irish Members feel all this loathing for England, and if they confess at the same time that they have no power to pat an end to the connection, their plain duty is not to express a loathing which only aggravates the situation. Does a sensible prisoner continue to express his loathing for the power which took him prisoner We confess that we do not believe the Irish hatred to be altogether serious. It is dramatic hatred, hatred at which the Irish enjoy playing, and playing with childish effusion, but it is not altogether either the ruling passion, or a passion founded on that serious convic- tion, which they profess it to be.
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