Note by the Editor

THERE are signs that the night of hatred and twilight of suspicion are brightening into the dawn of a new day in the history of the partnership between Great Britain and Ireland, into a day of mutual understanding, respect, and in the end affection.

The angry time has already passed when no Irishman could read with patience and profit a history of his native land by an Irishman of other politics than his own, and when the predominant partner was inclined to shut his ears to both. Here, then, is such a history, by a man who has been no neutral in the strife, who for many years upheld in the House of Commons the views of the Irish majority; who, indeed (though he has modestly omitted to say it), was Chairman of the larger section of the Nationalist party from 1890 till 1896; yet who in the stormiest times never lost the esteem of the English people. This book of his will help to explain the old antagonisms, and in explaining may help to end them.

H. A. K.