apr. 1.
Wituotcr indulging in dithyrambles, as the framers of the Trish agreement appear rather to have done, we may hail the news of that agreement with deep satisfaction, The telegrams from Ireland during the past few weeks have provided mournful reading. The outrages almost daily reported have outrivalled the worst committed during the days of stress between Great Britain and the Republican forces. And only five days ago these same forces sent delegates to a convention in Dublin, in flat defiance of the orders of the Provisional Government, at which they proceeded to pass resolutions deposing Mr. Mulcahy, the Minister of War, nud generally to declare secession from and the repudiation of all who would accept the Trish Free State Bill. In such circumstances and with such forces at large it is early yet to talk of peace.
On the other hand, we believe that the present disorderliness of treland is mainly on the surface. One telegram describes the delegates to the Republican Army convention as being for the most part' ununiformed and mere lads. In other words, people who, for the past three or four years, have been able to parade the country in the guise of heroes and now, with the institution of the Irish Free State, see themselves removed from the limelight and their occupation gone. This is the kind of difficulty with which every country, in passing through the phase in; which Ireland finds herself, has to contend and only time can overcome it.
But the depths of the nation sincerely desire peace and in the agreement announced to-day there are two especial causes for satisfaction: first, that the best men in Ireland are working determinedly for peace, undeterred by surface agitations
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.