At a time when so many Americans seem to be forgetting the history of their country and are fatuously pursuing the political will-o’-the-wisp called “British friendship”; when a society organized to frustrate the unwisdom of foreign alliances,—the League of American Independence,—is flouted and insulted; when the tendency of the dominant political party in the Republic is towards international folly and its motto appears to be “Away with the Constitution,” the incident embodied in the appended letter may perhaps remind sane Americans what the true attitude should be to-day towards the Russian and British empires, respectively. The letter in question is an answer to a request made by me on Mr. Jeremiah Curtin,—the scholarly translator of “Quo Vadis” and other works of Sienkiewicz, and himself the author of a number of remarkable volumes on folk-lore and kindred subjects,—for a paper on Andrew Curtin, his uncle, the famous war governor of Pennsylvania: WARSAW, RUSSIAN EMPIRE, December 28, 1898. _Joseph Smith, Esq._: DEAR SIR:—I have just received your letter of December 5, and hasten to reply. The time between this date and the meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society is so short that it would be impossible for me to prepare a paper as you suggest; were I free there would be sufficient time, perhaps, but as I am in the midst of important and urgent investigations I can do no more than write you a few lines. There are many subjects, of course, which would be of interest to the Society and consequently to America. The time has come when men who are of more than ordinary culture, and interested in the history of America and the British empire, are beginning to understand that the political and social development of these two immense aggregations of mankind cannot be studied in a satisfactory and scientific way without a thorough knowledge of the Celtic race. But, as I understand, the Society is occupied specially at present in showing the part which the Irish have taken in the United States both in winning independence for the republic and afterward in building it up; the wider aspects of the history and career of the Celtic race may be considered at some later time, should the Society so desire. Among men of Irish descent who have played an important part in American history, the late Governor Curtin deserves a high place. His father, Roland Curtin, when a young man, was informed by governmental authority that he had twenty-four hours in which to leave Ireland. He went to France, and from France to America. He settled in Pennsylvania, and established the first iron works, if not in the state, in that part of it where he lived.