this juncture have
been afflicted with a John Redmond.
He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection--the word is
big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or
squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the
ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall
against Ireland.
The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being
made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better
understanding between the two nations it is well that England should
recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to
atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are
a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us.
We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have
persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever
national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that
you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot
claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity.
You think our people can only be tenacious in hate--it is a lie. Our
historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable
tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember
you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you
are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only
Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such
forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No
nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time
down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only
equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two
countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and
politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the
end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against
misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country
for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the
opportunity comes and safety with it.
Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You
have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now
an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends.
There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war,
and the lack
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