. 1111 , . PUZZLE OF IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR Or TRZ " SPECTATOR."]
SIE,—IS not our perplexity about Ireland due to the fact that we have forgotten that the idea for which England stands is the right of the plain man to go about his business in peace? Loyalty to this idea made England beloved as well as great throughout the world, and it is our recent disloyalty to it which has plunged us into a quagmire of confusion. Every- where the plain man, the man in the street, used to look to England as his protector and friend. Now we are failing him. We listen instead to the glib tongues of agitators. We give respectful attention to rebels and assassins.* We make wolves the guardians of sheep, and try to save the hen-roost by taming the fox. We substitute cant about political liberty for the solid boon of personal freedom. All the ancient wickedneeses and old oppressions from which for a space we cleansed the Empire are coming hack. Compare the Ireland of to-day with the Ireland of the "'nineties." Let us take heed to ourselves. Nothing can absolve us from our responsibility towards Ireland. It is not merely that the daily toll of murders shocks the conscience of mankind. It is that the British Empire will forfeit its right to survive in the eyes of those high destinies which at long last, but very surely, rule the world.—I am,
Sir, &c., C. POYNTS SANDERSON. 3 Clarence Parade, Southsca.
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