England will not let us break the heads of our scoundrels; she will
   not break them herself; we are a free country, and must take the
   consequences.

   The functions of the Anglo-Irish Government were to do what ought not
   to be done, and to leave undone what ought to be done.

The Irish race have always been noisy, useless and ineffectual.  They have produced nothing, they have done nothing, which it is possible to admire.  What they are, that they have always been, and the only hope for them is that their ridiculous Irish nationality should be buried and forgotten.

   The Irish are the best actors in the world.

   Order is an exotic in Ireland.  It has been imported from England, but
   it will not grow.  It suits neither soil, nor climate.  If the English
   wanted order in Ireland, they should have left none of us alive.

   When ruling powers are unjust, nature reasserts her rights.

   Even anarchy has its advantages.

   Nature keeps an accurate account. . . .  The longer a bill is left
   unpaid, the heavier the accumulation of interest.

   You cannot live in Ireland without breaking laws on one side or
   another.  Pecca fortiter, therefore, as . . .  Luther said.

   The animal spirits of the Irish remained when all else was gone, and
   if there was no purpose in their lives, they could at least enjoy
   themselves.

   The Irish peasants can make the country hot for the Protestant
   gentleman, but that is all they are fit for.

As we said before, if Mr. Froude intended his book to help the Tory Government to solve the Irish question he has entirely missed his aim.  The Ireland of which he writes has disappeared.  As a record, however, of the incapacity of a Teutonic to rule a Celtic people against their own wish, his book is not without value.  It is dull, but dull books are very popular at present; and as people have grown a little tired of talking about Robert Elsmere, they will probably take to discussing The Two Chiefs of Dunboy.  There are some who will welcome with delight the idea of solving the Irish question by doing away with the Irish people.  There are others who will remember that Ireland has extended her boundaries, and that we have now to reckon with her not merely in the Old World but in the New.

The Two Chiefs of Dunboy:  or An Irish Romance of the Last Century.  By J. A. Froude. (Longmans, Green and Co.)

SOME LITERARY NOTES—­V

(Woman’s World, May 1889.)