rty. Mr. James Stephens was
in Dublin during the insurrection; he wrote a book about his own
personal observation of it, which as a record of observation is
admirable. But when Mr. Stephens comes to emit opinions, here is what he
has to say:

"Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly.
It happened because the leader of the Irish party misrepresented his
people in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration
of war between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with
eight centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the
window. He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had
no authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would
be met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional
nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as
if he had Ireland in his pocket and could answer for her. Ireland has
never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, _because she has
never been loyal to England_, and the profession of her National faith
has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and
has been clamant to all the world beside.

"Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated
Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality
(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this
country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have
gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received
politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas!
these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were
not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to
Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so
he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even
one National rag to cover herself with.

"After a lie, truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and
serene goddess we knew or hoped for--it is a disease, it is a moral
syphilis, and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been
purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie, and he is answerable to England for
the violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation
to which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no
Insurrection, without it there had been at this moment, and for a year
past, an end to the 'Ir