The Englishman who "sympathises" with Ireland is lost.
But the more general attitude differs widely from this.

Confronting us with a bluff and not unkindly demeanour, worthy of the nation that invented cold baths as a tonic against all spiritual anguish, the practical, modern Englishman speaks out his mind in straight-flung words and few.

"You fellows," he says, "brood too much over the past.

After all, this is the twentieth century, not the twelfth.

What does it matter whether my ancestors murdered yours or not?
Both would be dead now in any event.