Short Life of Thomas Davis. By Sir Charles Gavan Duffy.
(T. Fisher Unwin.)—This is a volume of the "New Irish Library," and is a really brilliant sketch of a very striking personality. Thomas Davis was by birth an Irish Protestant,. and, whatever one may think of the opinions which he held, a, genuine patriot. Two fine stanzas which his biographer quotes show how wide were his sympathies, while they indicate no mean poetical power. From both points of view they are worth quoting:— " Here came the proud Phizenician, the man of trade and toil, Here came the proud MileAsn, a-hungering for spoil; And the Finals and the Cymry, and the hard, enduring Dane, And the iron Lords of Normandy, with the Saxons in their train.
And oh! it were a gallant deed to show before mankind, How every race and every creed might be by love combined— Might be combined and yet not forget the fountains where they rose,
As, filled by many a rivulet, the stately Shannon fin "
Davis began life by being a follower of O'Connell, no small effort of courage for a Protestant in the early part of the century, but found himself when the Liberator's career drew to a close, some- what remote from his early leader. This is not the place to estimate his political position. Consistent he certainly was, and as certainly disinterested. Nor was he without a certain solidity of judgment. There was a strain of Celtic blood in him, but he had much of the Saxon temperament. Sir Gavan Duffy is right in saying that this mixture of races has often produced fine results, though his metaphor of an " amalgam nourishing noble fruit" is a little odd—may we say Irish ? This is an attractive little book.
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