THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 21 



are in the habit, by their effusions and cartoons, of 

 venting their miserable sectarian hate and bigotry 

 on a race that for learning, culture, and broad liber- 

 ality, stands the peer of any nationality or people on 

 earth : 



" Resolved That we, as Hibernians, protest 

 against this caricaturing of the Irish race, and we 

 appeal to our fellow-citizens, without distinction of 

 race, colour, or creed, to unite with us in eradicating 

 this miserable burlesquing of any of God's creatures, 

 by refraining from patronising any publication, 

 theatrical or other entertainments, guilty of such low 

 and contemptible vulgarity." 



(8.) Mr. Lecky, in Leaders of Public Opinion in 

 Ireland, thus protests : " It is not possible for any 

 patriotic Irishman to contrast without emotion the 

 tone which has been adopted towards his country by 

 some of the most eminent writers of France with the 

 studied depreciation of the Irish, character by some 

 of the most popular authors, and by a large section 

 of the Press of England. The character of a nation 

 is its most precious possession, and it is to such 

 writers as de Montalembert and Gustave de Beau- 

 mont that it is mainly due that Ireland has still 

 many sympathisers on the Continent." 



(9.) The Conservative Tablet says: "That 

 speech, barren of everything but words, wanton and 

 wounding, may have won for Lord Salisbury a cheap 

 and a noisy triumph. The temptation to barter flouts 



