IT IS no longer an extravagant use of words to say that civil war prevails in Ireland. The police, who have suffered the greatest provocation, make no pretence of confining their activities to the protection of life and property. They are instead engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Roman Catholic population. Meanwhile, Dublin Castle is empty of all responsible officials: the Prime Minister is in Lovely Lucerne, and his colleagues presumably are occupied with “the little brown bird”. Every day that passes makes reconciliation more difficult, but we still believe there are enough men of good will and moderate opinion in Ireland to render Dominion Home Rule a workable system for Ireland. Certainly, to put the nutter on the lowest level, it would pay the Government to be quit of Ireland. To those who protest that a hostile nation at our door would be intolerable the answer is that we have that already. In a very few years, during which the Government would probably be violently clerical, economic factors would assert themselves, and they, together with the removal of the causes of present animosity, would, we are convinced, bring the two nations into friendlier relations than have subsisted since the Battle of the Boyne.

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