The Americans are forming what they term an "Irish Famine
Relief Fund," and are issuing an appeal for subscriptions. The chairman, it was announced on Thursday, is General Grant Wilson, an ex-soldier and literary philanthropist, and, to make the organisation non-political, the honorary chairmen are ex- Presidents Hayes and Cleveland. Our kinsfolk are always generous, and they will doubtless endeavour to spend the money well ; we cannot, however, help being reminded of one of Lord Beaconsfield's sayings. He speaks somewhere of John Bull " puzzled but still subscribing," and this is as often the American attitude. Like us, when they have a general sense that something is going wrong, though they do not know how, their impulse is to put their hands into their pockets. This, we fancy, is what is happening just now. The people of America are puzzled by the Irish rhetoric about "famine stalking through the land," and, believing that something is amiss, they want to help. Though we have no desire to under- estimate the threatened distress, we hope and expect that General Wilson's committee will find it much less severe than they suppose.
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