cover. . . . So of our flour mills, the ruin of which is so often ascribed to the Union, while the true source of rot is to be found elsewhere. This industry was revolutionized by the introduction of the roller. . . . Where the new method was adopted it made fortunes. . . The Bolands succeeded in Dublin, wonderfully; Mosses, Pilsworths, Brownes, in County Kilkenny; Shackletons, Odlums, and others, in the Midlands; Hallinans, Russells, Furlongs, Goings, and Smiths, in the South; McCanns, Pollexfens, elsewhere.31

Particularly interesting at this time is it to find Father McDonald's suggestions for the solution of the Irish question in general agreement with the plan recently outlined by Premier Lloyd George in the House of Commons- the giving of separate parliaments to Ulster and to the rest of Ireland.

For Americans, the implicit information in regard to Irish Separatists is perhaps the most valuable part of Some Ethical Questions of Peace and War. One cannot read this book without coming to realize that Sinn Feiners were eager to aid Germany in the recent war, and that the Sinn Fein agitation is in general a destructive agitation somewhat like Russian Bolshevism. That Ireland is at heart sound, we may believe from the statement in regard to the elections of December, 1918, "wherein not much more than one third of the electors voted for an independent Republic; while it is well known that, of those who voted that way, a considerable number

did so merely to oust the old Parliamentary Party or to secure a fuller measure of Home Rule." 32

Although, as written English, Father McDonald's book leaves much to be desired, no such accusation can be brought against Professor Cole's Ireland the Outpost, which has a beauty of style rare even among those who make belles-lettres their profession. With the knowledge of a scientist the author combines the temperament of a poet, and an acquaintance with the contemporary poetry of his country. When he speaks of the geological formation of the glens of Antrim, he remembers the songs of Moira O'Neill. His pamphlet of some eighty pages describes "the influence of geographic conditions on the current of affairs in Ireland." He mentions the need for correlation between the geographer, the anthropologist, and the historian, and himself makes abundant use of the work of scholars in allied fields. With the aid of maps and photographs he enforces his written exposition of the geological connection between Ireland, Britain, and the Continent of Europe, while his use of Irish history and antiquarian research shows unusual insight and carries conviction. The delightful story from Froissart summarized on pages 50 and 51 reveals Professor Cole's thorough understanding of the Irish temperament; indeed, nowhere has the heart of the Irish problem been more clearly disclosed than in this short pamphlet. Four sentences, two from the preface and two from

the conclusion, sum up the question as well as could many pages of disquisition:

At times she [Ireland] catches the light that floods across from Europe, and adds to its brightness the ardent glow of her response. At times the sea-mist gathers along her mountain-barriers, and she sinks back into the haze of the Atlantic, elusive as the Fortunate Isles. . . The gate of Ireland is at Dublin, and the gate stands open to the dawn. Westward stretch the gulfs of the Atlantic; eastward lie the friendly and the narrow seas.33

Both these books should be welcome in the United States: Father McDonald's because it is an intimate revelation of Sinn Fein from a Gael who has passed his life in Ireland, and Professor Cole's because science and scholarship are interpreted with the vision of the artist. The two authors are more than Irish party men, more even than Irish citizens they are Irish patriots. Well are they described in the lines quoted by Professor Cole from A. E.: We would no Irish sign efface,

D

AN IRISH LEADER AND A SINN

FEIN PLEA

URING the Great War no Irishman had to

make more difficult decisions or undergo keener mental anguish than did John Redmond. Pledging his followers to the Allied cause at the opening of the war, he saw himself betrayed by lack of coöperation on the part of those upon whose faith he relied, and repudiated by a large number of his countrymen. At the moment when there seemed an eleventh-hour opportunity of re-creating a united Ireland, he was deserted by one of the most notable of his followers and by three of the bishops of his church. Small wonder that he could not survive this bitter disappointment, and that he died soon afterward. He has about him a melancholy splendor akin to that which surrounds the dying hero of early Ireland, Cuchulain.

The haze of distance, combined with necessary censorship of news while the war continued, has left Americans uncertain as to the exact history of Mr. Redmond's relations with his political adherents and opponents in his last years. Particularly have people in the United States been interested in Irish recruiting, wishing to know whether, as some persons allege, Ireland sent fewer men than she should have done to fight for world freedom; why there

should have been hesitation among Irishmen in living up to Mr. Redmond's generous offer of their services; or whether Ireland's contribution to the soldiery of the British Army was adequate. These questions are clearly answered by Captain Stephen Gwynn in John Redmond's Last Years, a book remarkable for its lack of personal bias when it is remembered that Captain Gwynn was for many years one of the Irish Party in Parliament. The fact that he fought in France with an Irish division gave him the advantage of understanding the point of view of the Irish soldier as well as that of the Irish statesman. Moreover, the author had access to Mr. Redmond's papers in preparing this book, which is one of the important contributions to the recent history of Anglo-Irish relations.

Captain Gwynn has planned his volume admirably: he gives only enough of Mr. Redmond's personal history and of his place in the Irish Party before 1914 to enable the reader to follow the story of the remaining chapters. He delineates a definite picture of the manner of man that Mr. Redmond was. In the preface to John Bull's Other Island Mr. George Bernard Shaw has vigorously asserted his belief that the Irishman far more than the Englishman is the practical man with a clear comprehension of facts. Such an Irishman was John Redmond. He endeavored to argue logically always, and his ability to grasp and to state the essentials of a question is