THE MOURNING IN DUBLIN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.."]
SIR,—Englishmen who have a fixed conviction of the dis- loyalty of Ireland should have been in Dublin last Sunday. The two Cathedrals were crowded long before the hour of service with a dense multitude of all classes. Hundreds, had to stand outside. The impression as one entered St. Patrick's was of unrelieved black. When the change in the State prayers brought home to the people that something had really gone for ever from their familiar daily life, there were many unaffected tears, and the infectious emotion of the multitude seized on strong young men, who were not ashamed. In the streets there is the same silent witness to universal grief. The very poor are in black of some sort, as well as the rich and middle class ; and the evening tram- cars on Sunday were filled not only with Protestants from the Cathedrals, but with many poor Catholics who had been to hear a requiem or say a prayer for the Queen. There is no mistaking the symptoms of genuine popular sorrow which meet one in the streets of Dublin, and it is more than a set- off against the ill-timed and ill-tuned protests of certain local politicians, who have only demonstrated that popular agitators are not always in touch with the hearts of the people. Of course, all this sincere mourning has nothing to do with loyalty to any Government or Constitution. It is personal devotion to the Queen. But that it exists and can be moved to such depths is a fact worth remembering—by the King and by others whom it concerns—I am, Sir, &c., Z.
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