This is one of the marvels of this inventive age. Before Professor Fiske—for whose talent and industry I have a very great respect—gives us his promised views on the Scotch-Irishman in his forthcoming work, _The Dutch and Quaker Settlements in America_, let me propound a question or two to him. If, as is pretended, a certain number of Lowland Scotchmen of the Presbyterian religion accomplished so much in Ulster and America, why have not the great majority of the same people accomplished as much in their own land and elsewhere, when all the conditions were in their favor? And again, if so much was accomplished by an Irish environment and an Irish racial admixture, and so little achieved by the pure Scot under more favorable circumstances, is it not a reasonable deduction that the Irish element was the responsible factor in the achievement? If not, why not? [Illustration: GEN. A. G. MALLOY TEXAS ] [Illustration: TIMOTHY P. SULLIVAN NEW HAMPSHIRE ] VICE-PRESIDENTS [Illustration: ANDREW ATHY WORCESTER, MASS. ] [Illustration: CAPT. JOHN DRUM, U. S. A. ] That invader and invaded should hate each other bitterly is not of any particular importance as bearing on nationality; it is the experience of all lands and races. Presbyterian Murphys and McManuses are no argument for Scotch Murphys and McManuses; it may indicate intermarriage and change of religious faith; it can’t indicate a change of blood. The transformation of bogs and fens into gardens is merely a fairy story; the bogs and fens are in Ulster to-day. The fertile valleys of Ulster, ready to be entered on, were the bait to catch settlers, for the defeated and disheartened native Irish had been driven to the barren hills and bogs. Men as a rule don’t risk life and fortune for the privilege of transforming bogs into gardens in a hostile country; and, moreover, Motley says England and Scotland in that age had the rudest system of agriculture in Europe. The higher system of agriculture, as well as the woolen and linen industries, came with the skilled exiles from Holland and France; and even as great a plunderer as Wentworth was wise enough to foster them. And I might ask, why didn’t these marvelous Scots make their own country famous for woolen and linen industries, when they made their own laws and could snap their fingers at English jealousy? Finally, if these people were Scotch “slightly hibernicized,” why did they on their arrival in America organize “Irish societies”? Why did they name towns and rivers with Irish names? Why did they celebrate St. Patrick’s day rather than St. Andrew’s?