On the whole, a quarter of a century of not unsympathetic observation of the Irish in the United States has convinced me that the position they occupy there is not one which either they or the American people can look on with entire satisfaction.

The Irish immigrants are felt to belong to a kind of _imperium in imperio_, and to carry into American politics ideas which are not American, and which might easily become an embarrassment if not a danger to America.

Hence the powerful interest which America shares with England, though of course in a less degree, in understanding and helping to settle the complex difficulty called the Irish Question.

The Irish remember Ireland long after they have left it.

They are not in the same position as the German or English immigrants who have no cause at home which they wish to forward.