y and
sacrificed to the same greed that had destroyed her own freedom.

Unhappy, indeed, is it for mankind, as for her own fate and honour
that Ireland should be forced by dire stress of fortune to aid her
imperial wrecker in wrecking the fortune and freedom of brave men
elsewhere.

That these physical qualities of Irishmen, even with a population now
only one tenth that of Great Britain are still of value to the empire,
Mr. Churchill's speech on the Home Rule Bill made frankly clear
(February, 1913). We now learn that the First Lord of the Admiralty
has decided to establish a new training squadron, "with a base
at Queenstown," where it is hoped to induce with the bribe of
"self-government" the youth of Cork and Munster to again man the
British fleet as they did in the days of Nelson, and we are even told
that the prospects of brisk recruiting are "politically favourable."

Carthage got her soldiers from Spain, her seamen, her slingers from
the Balearic Islands and the coasts of Africa, her money from the
trade of the world. Rome beat her, but she did not leave a defeated
Carthage to still levy toll of men and mind on those external sources
of supply.

Germany must fight, not merely to defeat the British fleet of to-day,
but to neutralize the British fleet of to-morrow. Leave Ireland to
Great Britain and that can never be. Neutralize Ireland and it is
already accomplished.

One of the conditions of peace, and _for this reason_ the most
important condition of peace that a victorious Germany must impose
upon her defeated antagonist is that Ireland shall be separated
and erected into an independent European State under international
guarantees. England, obviously would resist such conditions to the
last, but then the last has already come before England would consent
to any peace save on terms she dictated.

A defeated England is a starved England. She would have to accept
whatever terms Germany imposed unless those terms provoked external
intervention on behalf of the defeated power.

The prize Germany seeks to win from victory is not immediate
territorial aggrandizement obtained from annexing British possessions,
not a heavy money indemnity wrung from British finance and trade
(although this she might have), but German freedom throughout the
world on equal terms with Britain. This is a prize worth fighting for,
for once gained the rest follows as a matter of course.

German civilization released from the restr