small support from the public, heartedness of its opponents Unionists, whether workmen within the movement and the or employers, hated it because opposition of the Home Rulers it was Nationalist; merchants without it, and Celtio Ireland and farmers, whether Unionist believed it. Henceforth, whator Nationalist, abhorred it be- ever crimes this party might cause it was communist; and commit, it was disloyalty to these classes between them con- Ireland to denounce the crimstituted three-fourths of the inals, and absolute treason to population of Ireland. If the Ireland to inform against them. Chief Secretary had been a man of energy and determination, the whole movement might have been suppressed with little trouble and with almost universal approval; but the Chief Secretary was Mr Augustine Birrell, who was so weak that he could not be resolute even against the Unionists. He let things drift till the almost invited insurrection came, and the capital of Ireland was in the hands of the rebels. I am told that when the news of this calamity was brought to him, Mr Birrell was asleep in an armohair in a certain London olub. We have heard much of the destruction of life at Amritsar. I wonder how many more lives have been lost through Mr Birrell's feebleness than through General Dyer's fierceness. And how many more will yet be lost! James Connolly was tried by court-martial for treason and executed. He had been the leader of the party which favoured early rebellion, and the rebellion had failed. Yet the rebellion made the fortune of his party. It alleged, with some show of reason, that the failure of the rebellion was due to the hesitation and half This revulsion of feeling in favour of the party of action, in what has now come to be called the Sinn Fein movement, had two effects on its composition which were of the utmost importance. In the first place, it induced multitudes of enthusiastie young Nationalist farmers and merchants to join it in spite of its communist tend. This improved the intelligence of the party and supplied it with ample funds and arms, for never were these so plentiful in Ireland as they are to-day. In the second place, it attached to the active party those ancient predatory secret societies which identified its communist objects with their own. These societies date from the terrible days of the eighteenth century, when half the people of Celtic Ireland had never enough to eat, and those who had nothing formed themselves into organisations to rob from those who had. In quiet times they sink to impotence, but when political trouble comes their power revives and their membership inoreases, and they, by acting as if they were rebels, are enabled to act as what they really are-robbers. This combination of par ties in a movement to overthrow English government in Ireland seems formidable enough, and so, sure enough, it is at present; and yet it is just this combination which, it seems to me, will, if we have a little patience, lead to the defeat of the movement. Men with land of their own and a comfortable balance at their bank cannot act very cheerfully with men without either, and one of whose objects is to share both; and honest men cannot act very long with men who are out for pillage. Fear of the vengeance which would follow secession from their ranks has so far kept the different parties together; but already we hear of cases where stolen money has been restored and the thieves tried by the Sinn Fein courts and punished. When a thief is forbidden to rob, he can always turn informer. Besides, the bulk of Celtic Irishmen now small are farmers, usually owning their own farms and in a comfortable way of business: such men have no use for communism. Without their support no movement, political or social, in Ireland can live; and once the present fever subsides a little, I think we may expect most of them to look with great coldness on any movement, whatever else its object, which threatens the security of their possessions. At this moment I have reason to believe many of them are coerced into the acceptance of rebel rule only by terrorism, and for the existence of that terrorism not they, but the blunders and feebleness of the government, are primarily responsible. When that terrorism has been dethroned, then we shall have an Ireland which, if not loyal, will be at least peaceful, and, having seen the risks that revolution brings with it, even in a way contented. FROM THE OUTPOSTS. A DEBT. "YOUR Honour," said the Inspector of Police, "there are two jungly men from over the Administrative Line brought in this morning by a military policeman from the frontier blockhouse. They walked straight up to the post in the middle of the day carrying arms. They made no attempt at concealment, and when they were asked what they wanted they said they had a communication to make to Government. They were told that according to standing orders they must deposit their arms. They said they could not give up their guns, and were informed that unless they did they could not be allowed to go on. So they went back over the frontier stream and sat talking with one another for some time. Then two of them came back walking through the water, and said their business was very important and that they wanted to see you. They mentioned you by name Kako, which is the way all the people about here pronounce your Honour's name, as your Honour knows." "Did they say what they wanted?" asked Captain Kirkwood. "I make a point of seeing all these people, but I like to know what they have come about first." "No, they did not say. It is not a cattle-stealing case, But that is quite evident. unfortunately the clerk at the blockhouse was away at the village buying chickens, or tobacco, or something, and none of the sepoys can write and not many of them can talk Burmese, let alone the language of these people, your Honour. All that the military policeman can say is that the men said it was very sururi, very urgent. The two men were allowed to come on after they had deposited their guns and dhas, and the rest are camped in leaf shelters on the other side of the river, waiting for them to come back, questioned them at the police station, but all they say is that they are headmen villages, and that they beg that they may be allowed to approach your Honour. One of them asserts that your Honour knows him very well, but according to custom he will not give his name.". I of "Knows me quite well! I wonder who he is. Well, let them come in-and, if they stay a long time, come in and say that it is time to go to the court-house." The Inspector salaamed and went out, and a few minutes afterwards two wiry-looking men in short waist - cloths, barely coming to the knee, padded coats, and turbans consisting of a dingy wisp of cloth wound round their knotted hair, were ushered in by the chuprassi. Both of them put their right hands up with the palm over the ear. This was their notion of a British salute, and did not mean that they were hard of hearing or had earache. Captain Kirkwood recognised the first of them immediately. "Hallo, duwa, what's brought you here? I haven't been able to get up to your village for a long time now. We're very busy. Any serao about now? or sambhur? I should like to come up again for another shoot, but it can't be done just now.' "I do not know about the deer, thakin. It is not that. We have heard that you have a war, that the Great Royal Government is punishing some disorderly Germans. That is why we have come. Captain Kirkwood checked himself in an inclination to laugh. "What? You haven't come to enlist, have you? I am afraid there is no room for more men in the Kachin Company. It's full up. In fact there is a good long waiting list, and anyhow there is no chance of service for them, or for me, worse luck. The company won't be moved from here unless there are local troubles." "It is not that, Great Lord," said the chief eagerly. "But we have heard that the Germans, who are a race of dacoits, thieves, robbers, and murderers, have made a raid into the territory of the Great Lord, and are stealing much property and doing much mischief. We have some experience in that sort of thing, and therefore we have come to offer arms to the Great Royal Government, so that the Germans may be quickly defeated and exterminated." "Arms!" said Captain Kirkwood. "Do you mean weapons, or do you mean a band of the young men of your village? We can't take them just now." "No, Great Lord, but we have heard from Chinese caravans passing along the valley road, the road your Lordship knows very well, that the Germans have great supplies of weapons, and that they have been violently resisting the troops of the Great Royal Government. Therefore we have brought arms to offer to the Great Royal Government through your Lordship. But the people at the frontier fort did not understand. They told us that no one with arms may pass along the roads. We knew that very well, but we put it down to their ignorance of our virtuous intentions, Therefore my subjects have gone back across the frontier, and have taken the guns with them; but the arms are there beyond dispute. Then I and the pawmaing, the little duwa of the village on the northern slope, came with all possible haste to inform your Lordship of our purpose and of the circumstances. Great Lord, to issue orders that the weapons shall be brought along here, so the Royal Government troops may utterly destroy the Germans." We ask you, Captain Kirkwood felt in- off with him Ja Taung, a clined to laugh, but he had con- girl who had many lovers in siderable experience of Kachin the village. We went after sensitiveness, so he remarked him, but we lost the tracks and gravely, "That is very patriotic it was not for many weeks of you. But what do you know afterwards that we heard that of the Germans? Have you a he had gone north and had blood-feud with them?" sold Ja Taung as a slave, near the head-waters of the East river. Ja Taung's brother is one of the men who are waiting at the Fort with the guns for the Great Royal Government He wants to go on with his gun himself to fight the Germans and kill Maya. He has three notches on his bamboe staff marked against Maya." "Have we not a blood-feud? The whole village has a debt against them, and there are many villagers who have special private debts. Does your Lordship know the German Maya (Meier)? You must know him. He stayed at our village shortly after the time when your Lordship came up to inquire into the disturbances which had occurred in the Pumshih village over the closing of the forests and the stopping of the cutting of trees and bamboos. You remember that after you had finished your inquiry you came over the Administrative Line to my place to shoot some of the forest oreatures." "Of course, I remember very well. Was he a short stout man with a yellow moustache, and a knapsack strapped on his back?" "Yes, he was a man like that, but he was chiefly noted for his bad manners, for the way he took everything and paid for nothing, and for the evil way in which he spoke. Ah, but he was cunning. Just when we had determined to seize him and hand him over to the Royal Government, er to out him down if he resisted," the duwa looked sideways at Kirkwood with some thing like a smirk on his face, "he disappeared, and he carried "There was nothing that he did not do. He said he was studying all the races of the earth, and he specially wanted to find out about the ancient races on the frontier between China and Burma and their manners and customs. He had man with him who spoke Chinese, and all the Kachins near the frontier oan understand Chinese, so he was able to talk freely. This man of his was a bad man too. He had been a little teacher with the missionary whom your Lordship seized and sent away because he had been selling guns to the Chinese and others. They were not much use these guns, for they were all shovebehind guns, and when the supply of cartridges was done they could not be used any |