rest of the world. The true causes of misfortune for Ireland are thus frequently substituted for the apparent, and happenings of centuries ago are not judged entirely by modern standards of political morality. Of the close of the Middle Ages, Professor Turner writes:

What England had accomplished in Ireland was mostly an evil thing. She had not really conquered it, but she had been able to retard its own development, keep its people from their heritage, whatever that might have been; and she had sowed evil seeds for the future. As one peers far back into this old time, he is oppressed with sadness more than with anger, for here was the result of circumstance, ignorance, and incapacity, rather than malevolent intention.19

The author keeps his tolerant point of view in the three remaining chapters of the first part, which carry the history of Ireland through the time of the Fenians.

One of the most noteworthy points about the book is that, even in his account of early history, Professor Turner constantly draws parallels between the past and the present, thus making his book not only timely, but enabling the reader to trace the continuity of certain phases of the Irish problem. Part of the discussion of the union of Ireland with Great Britain admirably illustrates the author's method.

When the rebellion of 1798 was ended, the younger Pitt... was confronted with problems much greater than those concerning Ireland alone. One of the things to be noticed by the student of Irish history is the narrow views of a great many of its writers. Recently advocates [Sinn Fein and Nationalist]. . . have seemed to take into consideration nothing but the affairs of Ireland alone, and seemed to care little for the effects upon England and the rest of the world. . . . So the .. writers who tell the story of the union of Ireland with England expatiate with horror upon the fraud and corruption and violence which brought it about, without intelligent study of the conditions which prevailed then, and tell the story with reference solely to Ireland, recking little . . . that then also England was locked in struggle with one of the mightiest of her foes. . . . Irishmen, justly discontented, were inviting Frenchmen to invade their island, as in 1914 some others sought assistance from Germans. Then as now a hostile Ireland, giving base for the enemy's flank attack, might have been fatal. . . .

There were other considerations. Under Grattan's Parliament the aspirations of many Irishmen had been very fine, and they had struggled manfully against fatal and evil conditions. . . . It is true also that reactionaries both in England and in Ireland had tried to make them fail. The fact was, however, that Ireland under her own parliament had not achieved union of the peoples or solution of the problems that vexed them. Had there been no international dangers, and if the best men of Ireland had had a longer time and a fairer chance, perhaps all of these difficulties would have been re

moved, in the end. But while the ardent and discontented now may describe merely the iniquity of wrongs in the past, statesmen at the time had to deal with things as they were.20

The second section of Professor Turner's book treats of the relations between Ireland and England from the days of the Fenians until the opening of the World War. There is an account of Land Legislation; of the Agricultural Renaissance, associated with Sir Horace Plunkett; of the Government of Ireland, and of the Struggle for Home Rule. The illuminating chapter, Arguments About Home Rule, is introduced as follows:

In this chapter I purpose to sum up the arguments used in the Home Rule struggle. . . In expounding them it is necessary to deal with many matters highly controversial, with statements exaggerated, spoken in bitterness and passion, many of them greatly offensive to one side or the other, often seeming cruel and untrue. In this chapter I hold no brief. . . . I neither defend nor vouch for the truth. It is my purpose to expound the things which were said, which the contestants desired men to believe.21

Part Two closes with a thorough account of the position of Ulster.

The last section of the book, Irish Nationality and the War, will be of the widest interest to-day. It is appropriately introduced by a chapter on the Irish Language and Literature (both in the vernacu

lar and in English). While open to objection as literary criticism, there is shown justly the relation between the literary revival and the growing spirit of Irish nationality. The origin and growth of Sinn Fein, and the relations of Sinn Fein, the Nationalists, and England are carefully and clearly explained, and in such a way that the great good accomplished by Sinn Fein in fostering fresh enthusiasm for Irish culture remains in the reader's mind distinct from the Sinn Fein political programme. The author says: "Sinn Fein and its idea of the complete independence of Ireland I have tried to discuss sympathetically from the point of view of Sinn Fein."22 In a comparison between Robert Emmet and Padraic Pearse, first "President of the Irish Republic," Professor Turner has written on an earlier page: "For his [Robert Emmet's] immediate failure he paid with his life, and like Padraic Pearse, another one great of soul and of kindred spirit a hundred years later, he died an enthusiast and pureminded martyr." 23 Of the others who perished in the Easter Rebellion he asks: "What judgment shall be given upon them? Certainly they were not wicked or depraved; but were they not sometimes childlike and foolish, seeing only a little of the things in this world, and seeing that little with such terrible ardor that brain and heart were on fire?" 24

Professor Turner has produced an admirable book. For the method of the propagandist he has

substituted that of the historian. In footnotes he states exactly the sources of his quotations, and adds to his work a bibliography of ten pages, wherein nearly every volume listed is briefly described. His exposition will be welcomed alike by scholars and by laymen. To Americans at the present time it will be invaluable, for the author tells without prejudice the whole story of the relations between Ireland and Britain. That whole story Americans must understand if they would have a true opinion of the Irish question and, by force of their opinion, aid in the solution of the Irish problem.

An American supporter of Sinn Fein made the extravagant statement that Mr. Creel's book on Ireland was "worth an army" to Ireland's cause. Perhaps he meant the German Army? If that sweeping statement were true, then Ireland and England would be worth the armies of all the Allies. Wherever men and women cherish good-will toward Ireland Professor Turner's book will find friends.

1919.

PRELATE AND PROFESSOR ON IRISH

THE

POLITICS

HE Irish National Bureau in Washington would have us believe that there are but two political camps in Ireland to-day: the Sinn Fein, or Republican Party, advocating the complete separa