INTRODUCTION xxvii 



England and the constant pressure upon Con 

 gressmen and on successive administrations to 

 adopt an anti-British policy, a factor of some 

 moment. After the remarkable change of Brit 

 ish policy toward Ireland which began with Mr. 

 Gladstone s Church Disestablishment Bill of 

 1869, and reached its high-water mark in his 

 Home Rule Bill of 1886, this anti-English senti 

 ment gradually declined, affecting an always 

 diminishing percentage of that part of the 

 American population which springs from an Irish 

 stock and cherishes an Irish patriotism. It is 

 now confined to a comparatively small section, 

 and is likely soon to disappear. But from the 

 end of the Civil War till about the end of the 

 century it was an obstacle to perfectly good 

 relations, being one of the many ways which 

 Irishmen have found of avenging the wrongs 

 their forefathers suffered at the hands of English 

 governments. 



Nevertheless, despite these grounds of dis 

 sension and others which need not be here re 

 counted, peace did last unbroken, and, though 

 there were several strains, none came quite to the 

 breaking-point. The times at which the risk 

 of a breach was greatest seem to have been the 



