like those beautiful ladies in the poems he read to me. I'm so glad I'm pretty at last."

"Such a good child!" sighed the little brown nurse, as she smoothed the white coverlet. "Such a kind patient!"

The quiet sound of the bell floated into the room and mingled subtly with the smell of the late roses, and the scents of autumn which were sweet within it.

The nurse went to the head of the stairs and called softly to some one who was waiting. Hugh Randal came up, pale, with tense lips, and passed within the room. He went straight to Mary. As Lady Anne passed out, leaving them together, she heard Mary's little cry of compassion, she saw her arms extended as a mother's might be to clasp her son.

"Poor souls!" sighed the little nurse beside her. a sad, sad meeting!"

"What

But Lady Anne hardly heard her. Since the far-off childish sorrow, when she had mourned for her father, grief had not touched her. Now she felt the world and the glory of it crumbling to pieces under her feet. What a world! where youth must die and lovers be parted. cause she had broken her tryst with her.

And her remorse beMary was heavy upon

(TO BE CONCLUDED.)

GOLDWIN SMITH AND THE IRISH QUESTION.

BY REV. MORGAN M. SHEEDY.

HE New Year opens with brighter prospects for Ireland. The question of Home Rule again occupies a foremost place in English politics by the accession of the Liberals to power in the United Kingdom. The head of the government, Sir H. Campbell- Bannermann, is a firm believer in the doctrine that the "Irish people should have the management of their own domestic affairs." A few days before he accepted office, and since, he declared that: "The only way of healing the evils of Ireland-removing the difficulties of her administration, of giving contentment and prosperity to her people, and of making her a strength instead of a weakness to the empire is that the Irish people should have the management of their own domestic affairs. Good government by foreigners can never be a substitute for the government by the people themselves."

No one questions the honesty and sincerity as Home Rulers of such members of the government as Mr. John Morley, Mr. James Bryce, Mr. Lloyd-George, Mr. Herbert Gladstone, Mr. John Burns, and the new Lord-Lieutenant for Ireland, the Earl of Aberdeen; they are all earnestly in favor of doing justice to Ireland. We may fairly expect then that the Irish question will be dealt with in the new Parliament. Neither can the pressing subject of university education for Catholics be ignored; it, as well as amendments of the Wyndham Land Purchase Act, which shall free that measure from many very objectionable features, is certain to find a prominent place in the parliamentary programme of the new ministry. Whatever may or may not be done, one thing is certain, nothing short of entrusting Ireland with the management of her own affairs will satisfy the aspirations and demands of the Irish people.

At the great National Convention, held recently in Dublin, the following resolution was adopted by acclamation: "W solemnly assert that no new system of government in Irel will be accepted as satisfactory except a legislative asser

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freely elected and representative of the people, with power to make laws for Ireland, and an executive government responsible to that assembly, and this convention declares that the Irish National Party cannot enter into an alliance with or give permanent support to any English party or government which does not make the question of granting such an assembly and executive to Ireland the cardinal point of its programme." Mr. John Redmond declares that the reliance of Ireland is not upon any British declarations, however plausible or encouraging they may be, but upon her own strength in Parliament and the absolute justice of her demands. The Irish question is, therefore, certain to be kept in the foreground of English politics until a satisfactory answer is given to it. Not since. the days of Gladstone has it occupied so prominent a position as it does at the present moment.

And not alone the political position, but the economic question, the emigration question, the Gaelic or language movement, the industrial revival have awakened the deepest interests in the minds of the people. The bishops and priests have united with the leaders of the nation in a desperate attempt to stem the tide of Irish emigration. Dr. Douglas Hyde, a distinguished scholar and the present head of the Gaelic revival, is at present in this country in the interest of the language movement and the revival of Irish industries. Whereever he has gone he has been most warmly received. He is telling the sad story of his country's wrongs to college and university students in their halls, and to the American people in interview and public address. He speaks of a land closely allied to the United States and blessed by Providence with great natural riches and incalculable wealth, whose half-deserted streets resound ever less and less to the roar of traffic, whose mills are silent, whose factories are fallen, whose priceless harbors are deserted, whose fields are studded with ruined gables, memories of the past. The cause of this deplorable national decay he justly ascribes to the "government-the bad government-of foreigners."

And the only remedy that he or anybody else can see is to restore to Ireland her right of self-government, so that she may become, as he puts it, "Irish all out," speaking her own language, thinking her own thoughts, living according to her own ideals, writing her own books, singing her own songs, and

supplying herself with her own manufactures. Such an Ireland he and every fair-minded man knows cannot exist under "a government of foreigners." For the present English government of Ireland, known as "Dublin Castle government," so pronounced a Tory as Lord Dunraven declares to be "an anachronism and the most extravagant government in the world imposed upon the poorest people in Europe." "Before long," he adds, "if Ireland's downward career is not checked, she will become a burden, a pauper in receipt of outdoor relief, for the amount of taxation derived from her will not cover the expenses of administration."

Now that a Liberal Government is in power, surely an end will be put to such a shameful condition of things. No Liberal Ministry can afford to tolerate at this late day the scandals and disgrace, avowed by foe and friend alike, of such glaring English misrule in Ireland. Assuming then that the present Liberal government of the United Kingdom will at an early date introduce an Irish Home Rule measure, it may be well to recall the features of Gladstone's bill. In 1886, Mr. Gladstone introduced his first Home Rule Bill. Its chief points may be summarized as follows:

An Irish Parliament to sit in Dublin, and Irish members to cease to sit at Westminster.

Judges to be appointed by the Irish Government, and to be removable by the Irish Parliament.

Ireland's contribution to the revenue to be reduced from one-twelfth to one fifteenth.

The Irish Legislature to have the power of taxation, except as to customs and excise, but to be debarred from interference with the army, navy, and foreign affairs, and from the making of any religious endowment.

Measures to be taken for securing the unity of the empire and the protection of Protestants.

This bill failed of passage by reason of the gigantic propaganda which was preached against it in England. Scotland. and Wales pronounced in favor of it. So have Canada and, more recently, Australia.

The second Home Rule-which Mr. Gladstone introduced in 1893, and which, after passing the House of Commons, was rejected by the House of Lords-was considerably less a "root and branch" affair than the former measure. Indeed, it was

specifically stated in the preamble that the supreme authority of the British Parliament was not to be impaired. In the meantime Mr. Parnell had died, and the grave scandal in which he was involved had the effect of splitting the Irish party. But to day, and for some years past, the party has been thoroughly reunited and most ably led by Mr. John Redmond who has shown himself to be possessed of the highest qualities of leadership. He has the fullest support and confidence of his countrymen. Such is Ireland's position at the beginning of the New Year and the opening of the first session of the new Parliament.

And now, because the question of Home Rule for Ireland is certain to occupy the foreground in the politics of the United Kingdom, we have turned with much interest to a timely volume just published by Professor Goldwin Smith. The title of the work is Irish History and the Irish Question. First a word about the author. Mr. Goldwin Smith is a selfexiled Englishman, a distinguished man of letters, a graduate and ex-professor of Oxford University. In British politics he is a Liberal-Unionist; in religion he is an avowed sceptic. He entertains, as is evident from his writings and his frequent letters to the daily press, an intense bitterness against every form of revealed religion, more especially against the dogmatic teaching and history of the Catholic Church. And as we shall see, this deep-seated anti-Catholic hostility mars what is in many other respects a fairly just and always, because of the splendid style of the writer, an intensely interesting summary of Irish history. He traces the general course of Ireland's history and considers it in its causative relations to the present situation as we have outlined it.

Among his special qualifications to undertake this workthough it may well be doubted if any Englishman, especially one of Mr. Goldwin Smith's strong prejudices and peculiar temperament, could give us an impartial survey of Irish historyhe informs us in his preface that some forty years ago he spent a summer in Dublin as the guest of Edward Cardwell, then Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the real head of the Irish Government. Under Cardwell's roof he heard the Irish question fully discussed by able men, including Robert Lowe, and derived a still greater advantage from constant and lasting intercourse with such friends as