there was until recently, the slightest sentimental attachment to
England in the heart of the American people at large. Among the
"hyphenated Americans," as they are called--Irish-Americans,
German-Americans, and so forth--it would be folly to look for any such
feeling.[L] The conciliation of America will never be complete until we
have achieved the conciliation of Ireland. It is evident, indeed, from
many symptoms, that Irish-American hostility to England is declining, if
not in rancour, at any rate in influence. Still, a popular New York
paper, on St. Patrick's Day, thinks it worth while to propitiate "The
Powerful Race of Ireland" by a leader under that heading, and to this
effect:

"The Irish race is famous as producing the best fighters and poets
among men, and the most beautiful and most virtuous of women.

"Such a reputation should suffice for any nation.

"And note that Ireland still is and always will be a NATION. There
is no Anglomania in that fair land, no yearning for reciprocity for
the sake of a few dollars, no drinking of the Queen's health
first....

"Noble patriots like John Dillon and William O'Brien fight for them
in the House of Commons, and they are good fighters everywhere,
from the glass-covered room in Westminster Abbey (!) to the
prize-ring, where a Sullivan, of pure Irish blood, forbids any man
to stand three rounds before him.

"The English whipped the Irish at the battle of the Boyne--true.
But the English on that occasion had the good luck to be led by a