been born in a stable?" But why should I go on? I should teach the reader nothing that he does not know. Nor is he ignorant that serious and sincere efforts have been made by English Governments, both Liberal and Conservative, to repair the faults and iniquities of the past. But, though it is true that recrimination has never done any good, it does not become those who have committed all the wrongs to say so. To knock people on the head with sticks, and then, while they are still bruised, to say to them: "My friends, do not recriminate; now we are going to repair all the wrong that we have done you, and so you must bear us no malice," is not a proceeding that is in good taste. Yet this is how John Bull acts towards Paddy. But, do what he will, he will not easily wipe out the recollection of seven centuries of violence and tyranny. His sincere but belated desire for a reconciliation will meet with some difficulty in disarming the bitterness of the vanquished; and really we must not be much surprised, still less must we reproach Ireland with biting the hand that binds her wounds, when that hand is the same that caused them.

The day which brought this conviction to my mind brought calmness to it too. The terrible Irish problem, so full of difficulties that even to try to state all its elements would be like attempting to put the sea into a bottle, was suddenly reduced to a proposition of singular simplicity. I left off listening to the complaints of the tenants, often oppressed, but sometimes impostors; I shut my cars to those of the landlords, some of whom are tyrants and some victims of a situation which they have not brought about. I no longer cared to know whether rents were excessive, land commissions partial, or coercion brutal. I no longer tried to determine whether the Nationalist agitators are patriots and heroes, apostles and, perchance, martyrs, in the cause of justice and liberty; or whether they are ambitious and crafty persons acting without any scruples ad majorem Hiberniæ gloriam, and aiming principally at making provision for themselves out of those constitutional rights which they claim. I ceased to ask myself whether the work of the National League is fruitful or sterile, guilty or laudable. I had no further wish to examine whether the Plan of Campaign, boycotting, and obstruction were disloyal or allowable.

The accumulation of Blue-books, the make-believe of Parliamentary debates, philanthropic tirades, philosophical dissertations, legal subtleties, all the waste paper of the Parnell Commission, the polemics of the Press-all of this went up in mist and vapour, to condense at last into the following conclusion.

There are no duties more sacred than those of a conqueror. Now, for centuries, England has failed in these duties towards Ireland. On the other hand, wounds that have been allowed to become poisoned will no longer close, and the worst thing about long-standing iniquities is that they become irreparable, or at least can only be cured by new injustice or by violent means. This it is which has caused all revolutions. England, more fortunate than she has been at some periods, has at her disposal a legal means for relaxing an excessively strained situation. It pleased her to seize Ireland-that was the right of conquest which even to-day is the ultima ratio of international questions. Very well. But the right of conquest, in itself a barbarous and immoral thing, can only be justified by its results. Now the results in this cașe are deplorable. For seven centuries English and Irish have, as the Arabs say, boiled in the same saucepan, and they still make different soups. This experiment has lasted long enough: we must try something else. Since the most illustrious statesmen, of a country which is justly famed above all others for its political. genius, fall into a slough directly they touch Irish ground, let them give up the attempt. A strong nation which takes charge of a weaker nation should act towards it like a good father towards his children; if not, it should be deposed from its rights as a conqueror, just as an indifferent or cruel father should be from his parental rights. Well, what has England made of the conquered country? What I have just beheld is cruel evidence. Let the England of to-day pay the debts of that past whose inheritance she has accepted. To grant to the Irish that Home Rule which they demand will be an act of good policy as well as of justice. Interest accords with generosity. If the Irish show themselves incapable of self-government, they will be judged in the sight of the world and condemned according to their deserts. It will be proved then that England was right and she will triumph. If, on the contrary, they

succeed in bringing prosperity to their native land, British strength and dignity will not be diminished-far from it. This will be, it is true, a confession on England s part of incapacity, or at least of error. But no one is infallible, and the shorter a folly the better. Now, this has lasted seven hundred years! The worst folly of all is to persist for vanity's sake. When a horse obstinately resists some obstacle it is wiser to take him home to the stable than to break his legs. England has to make one of those concessions which if they had been made in time would have spared Governments many revolutions and peoples many woes. Home Rule does not involve Separation. It is not a question of replacing the Union Jack now floating over the Viceregal palace by a green standard with a golden harp, under whose folds should dwell, in a new hall of Tara, a descendant of the giant Conn of the Hundred Battles, or Fingal the Subtle. The desire is to unite the countries in reality as now they are united by an empty formula. Will it not be a great gain for England when the motto of Erin's children shall no longer be, as it is to-day," God save Ireland!"-a cry of war and defiance-but this cry of gladness and loyalty, "God save the United Kingdom!"?

DE BOVET.

THE INDIAN RISING.

T the beginning of this century the country of the Sioux Indians was that portion of the United States lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains north of the 40th parallel of latitude. Their domain extended beyond our limits and into the possessions of Great Britain on the north. It was drained by the great Missouri River and its many tributaries. Their reserved lands have been made smaller and smaller, until, after omitting several detached portions, about 30,000 Sioux Indians inhabited one tract of country called the "Sioux Reservation," which contained a little more than 35,000 square miles, or 20,000,000 acres.

This is a grass-covered, rolling prairie country, with timber only along the creeks and rivers. The soil is usually alluvial and all the streams cut deep ravines, therefore the country is much broken. In places, apparently, underlying deposits of coal have been formed in ages past, and such portions are called "bad lands," being very rough and almost without vegetation.

Some twenty-five years ago, to distinguish between Indians raiding or hostile and Indians merely hunting, reservations were established. That now occupied by the Sioux is what remains of the land then allotted to them by a treaty with some of their bands. The reservation itself has been several times reduced, the United States being the purchaser of the portion surrendered.

When the buffalo became extinct, and other game scarce, it was necessary to furnish the Indians with clothing and food, or put them into a condition of self-support. The emergency was too sudden for the latter, so that the feeding and clothing were accomplished by collecting them in groups at several points in their vast domain,

VOL. IV.-No. 21.

Μ

under the care of civil agents charged with this work, and also with their instruction in the peaceful arts.

There are now five Sioux agencies, between one and two hundred miles from each other, viz., Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Brule, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge.

At each of these agencies there are two distinctive classes of Indians, the progressive and those who resist progress, ie., the reactionary. The progressive are willing to till the land, live honestly, and are, more or less, Christianised. The reactionary are as one would suppose, at all times subject to excitement and delighting from youth to age in war and pillage. They have habitually made raids and forays against other Indians, with now and then a hostile expedition against the white men in their neighbourhood. Over these latter spirits, Sitting Bull exercised his power, instanced in the war with General Terry, which resulted in the bloody massacre of Custer and his cavalry during the summer of 1876. What has been called the "Messiah" craze was taken advantage of by Sitting Bull and other medicine men like him to divide the Indians, still more excite them to intense enthusiasm, and so have them ready to carry out his peculiar machinations. Doubtless, Sitting Bull's death, resulting as it did in a fierce combat on the spot, had no immediate effect to pacify the wilder Sioux; it rather increased the terror of the timid, and infuriated those who were already intoxicated by the weird dancing.

Sitting Bull was combative, and possessed great power of endurance and an unusual amount of diplomatic tact. He was a dangerous character, and probably his death will in the end be a benefit to all the Indians in the country, and certainly to the settlers of South Dakota and Nebraska.

There are a few further facts which may give a clear idea of the situation. At one of the agencies-namely, the Pine Ridge— a report to Washington, of April 7th, 1890, says: "In former years this agency was allowed 5,000,000lb. of beef. This year it has been reduced to 4,000,000lb. The Indians were not prepared for this change; no instructions had been given the agent that 1,000,000lb. of beef would be cut off from the Indians.