Mr. Goldwin Smith narrates in last Saturday's Times an interesting
interview between himself and the late M. Guizot on the subject of England's conduct to Ireland, by way of showing that the "civilised world" does not stamp the whole of our policy towards Ireland in the present century with " discredit, and even with disgrace," as Mr. Gladstone maintains. In 1865, Mr. Goldwin Smith visited M. Gaizot in the Val Richer, when M. Guizot declared the conduct of England to Ireland for the last thirty years, that is, from 1835 to 1865, " admirable." Mr. Goldwin Smith suggested that justice to Ireland required the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, which had not then been made a question of practical politics, on which Guizot remarked, "Yes, and that will come ; but I repeat that the conduct of England to Ireland for the last thirty years has been admirable." M. Guizot was not, we suspect, at all prejudiced on the English side of the question. The " civilised world," in speaking through his month, spoke with very tolerable impartiality.
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