‘By all means. They had much to complain of—though they sought a remedy the wrong way, and suffered in consequence. The Ireland of their day was bad enough; but the Ireland of to-day is different.’
‘Different indeed,’ said the priest proudly. ‘Now we are a united people; we have the great American nation on our side.’
‘Shall I tell you what an American lady said to me the other day, as I saw her off in a Cunarder for New York?’ asked Mr. Wentworth.
‘If you like, sir.’
‘“Pray, Mr. Wentworth,” she said, leaning over the ship’s side, as I was getting into the tug—“pray don’t send us any more Irish.”’
‘That may be, sir. We all know ladies have their whims and aversions as well as other people. But you don’t seem fond of the Irish.’
‘On the contrary, I admire them much. I envy them their ingenuity, their humour, their enthusiasm, their power of oratory, their pluck and spirit. I only wish them better led. A real union of English and Irish would, I believe, make us the first nation in the world.’
‘Then, you don’t think much of our leaders?’
‘Oh yes I do. They are clever men—far cleverer than our average M.P.’s—but they have put the people on the wrong scent. It is not justice Ireland wants. England and Scotland are quite ready to accord her that. The people of England have been the warmest friends of Ireland from the first. Indeed, she has had more justice done to her than England and Scotland. Her farmers have rights denied to ours; her representatives occupy almost entirely the attention of Parliament. Your leaders only play with the people, and make the wrongs of Ireland a stepping-stone for themselves to place and power. What Ireland wants now is a little peace. The people are dying of political delirium tremens. Said an Irish hotel-keeper to me one day, “What Ireland wants is more industry. Farmers’ sons won’t work. They prefer instead to go to fairs and races and public meetings. Irishmen won’t invest in any Irish enterprise, and if they do it is always a job they make of it.” I myself have known when Englishmen have gone to Ireland to establish manufactures to keep the people employed, that the foremen have been shot and the manufactories closed. You must have known something of the same kind, Father O’Bourke.’
‘It may be that there are difficulties between Irishmen and Saxon masters, and that these difficulties may have occasionally led to bloodshed and loss of life. We are a hot-headed people. We have besides the wrongs of many long centuries to remember. You recollect Sir Walter Raleigh, Mr. Wentworth?’