murdered Mr. Burke certainly was not an Englishman; and there is an
apparent predominance of Irishmen in the places of trust and power. That
things at the Castle cannot be nearly so bad, moreover, as we in America
are asked to believe, would seem to be demonstrated by the affectionate
admiration with which Lord Spencer is now regarded by men like Mr.
O'Brien, M.P., who only the other day seemed to regard him as an unfit
survival of the Cities of the Plain. If what these men then said of him,
and of the Castle generally, was even very partially true--or if being
wholly false, these men believed it to be true--every man of them who
now touches Lord Spencer's hand is defiled, or defiles him.

But that concerns them. Their present attitude makes Lord Spencer a good
witness when he declares that the Civil servants of the Crown in
Ireland, called "the Castle," are "diligent, desire to do their duty
with impartiality, and to hold an even balance between opposing
interests in Ireland," and maintains that they "will act with
impartiality and vigour if led by men who know their own minds, and
desire to be firm in the Government of the country." All this being
true, Mr. Balfour ought to make his Government a success.

Mr. Balfour introduced me to Sir West Ridgway, the successor of Sir
Redvers Buller, who has been rewarded for the great services he did his
country in Asia, by being flung into this seething Irish stew. He takes
it very composedly, though the climate does not suit him, he says; and
has a quiet workmanlike way with him, which impresses one favourably at
once.

All the disorderly part of Ireland (for disorder is far from being
universal in Ireland) comes under his direct administration, being
divided into five divisions on the lines originally laid down in 1881 by
Mr. Forster. Over each of these divisions presides a functionary styled
a "Divisional Magistrate." The title is not happily chosen, the powers
of these officers being rather like those confided to a French Prefect
than like those which are associated in England and America with the
title of a "magistrate." They have no judicial power, and nothing to do
with the trial of offenders. Their business is to protect life and
property, and to detect and bring to justice offenders against the law.
They can only be called Magistrates as the Executive of the United
States is sometimes called the "Chief Magistrate."

One of the most conspicuous and trusted of these D