SINN FEIN PROPAGANDA. [To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."]
8114—Under the beading of "Sinn Fein Propaganda " you have published a letter signed "Historicus " finding fault with a statement which I made in a book entitled The Evolution of Sinn Fein. My statement was that the ruling classes in Eng- land at the time of the Irish Famine regarded it as an " inter- ference of Providence for the extirpation of the hated race." " Historicus " first taking this sentence from its context repre- sents it as being a general charge against the English people, and in the second place charges me with having made a state- ment "glaringly inconsistent with well established facts." His principal authority, among, it would seem, a cloud of unnamed witnesses, is Mr. Herbert Paul, " a Radical Member of Parlia- ment and an ardent supporter of Home Rule," whose words he placidly assumes " will perhaps appeal even to Professor Henry." I must say that they do not appeal to me in the least. The figures given in the quotation I assume to he correct, not being in a position just now to verify them; but the statement that the Government in this awful visitation " did what they could," so much, in fact, that " it may be doubted whether any Government could have done more," is absurd. Lord George Bentinek (among many others) pointed out repeatedly to the Government of the day much which it could have done but obstinately left undone; and in Ireland, where, naturally, most was known about the facts, the indifference and obstinacy of Lord John Russell and his Cabinet were bitterly resented. But I am not to correct Mr. Herbert Paul's inaccuracies. I am to defend my own statements. As to the feeling of England towards Ireland, I need only quote Lord Chancellor Campbell. who may be assumed to have known more of the feelings of his class and generation than can be known even by Mr. Herbert Paul. Writing in 1833 of an Irish Coercion Bill which the Government wished to pass but was not quite sure of passing, he says (Life ii., p. 27): " They (i.e., the Government) were probably tranquillized by recollecting how essentially Ireland is hated by the English nation and what a lenient view is taken • here of any measure which tends to degrade the mass of the Irish population " (the italics are mine). So much for my phrase " the hated nation." WAith regard to the rest I may quote Sir Charles Russell (afthwards Lord Chief Justice of England), who in his address to the Parnell Commission (p. 6). speaking of the Times, said that it " again and again exulted in that cruel decimation which an artificial famine had brought on the Irish people and exultingly exclaimed that ' at last the Irish were gone and gone with a vengeance.' " Writing without leisure to refer to books and notes, I give the quotations that I have at hand only; and it is not to be expected that you could find space for an article in reply to " Historicus." But if he wishes for " well established facts," as I assume that he does, I would recommend him to read John Mitchel's Last Conquest of Ireland, or if that be suspect (and in truth it is somewhat extravagant), he will find quite a moderate statement, and some food for thought, in O'Rourke's History of the Irish Famine, a standard work on the subject.—
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