NEWS OF THE WEEK.
/THE Press has not gone in the least beyond the truth when
it speaks of the Royal visit to Belfast as the King's triumph. It is that without flattery or exaggeration. There was danger for the King and for the Queen, for the hand of murder is not stayed by any sense of chivalry to women ; but it was faced by both with perfect courage and in a spirit which will endear them to all true hearts in the South as well as in the North. The King's presence at the opening of the Northern Parliament is a proof of the fact so often concealed by Sinn Fein calumny that there is not a touch of jealousy in England as regards autonomy in Ireland, pro- vided it does not involve civil tyranny and religious perse- cution in any part of the island. The King's moving appeal to the Irish people to " forgive and forget " was one in which the vast majority of his subjects will echo for the whole realm and Empire. Even such strong advocates of the cause of the Six Counties as ourselves will not regret for a moment the passage in the King's speech (summarized below) which looks forward to a united Ireland. " So may it be " is the wish of all good Britons, provided it can come about by honesty and goodwill, and not by force or fraud.
