We may note in this context what has actually hap-
pened in the two portions of Ireland. In the North murder and riot have been stamped out, in spite of the fact that they were based on the most inflammatory thing in the world—religious passion. Note also that there has not been a single execution in the nature of reprisal in the North. In the South on Saturday last no fewer than eleven men were executed nominally on the charge of being in possession of arms and ammunition, and three more were executed on Monday. What a strange world ! That semi-judicial week-end holocaust occasioned no public protest by our Radicals and humanitarians ! Yet if such a thing had happened under British rule they would have been almost ready to descend into the streets. We seem to be approaching the time when the taking of human life will be held reprehensible only if it is done with the due forms of law and after careful investigation to prove that the facts support the indictment.
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