A TIMELY REMINDER.

By his attack on the United States Senate for its recent resolution on the Irish question, Mr. Lloyd George has done well, and, we hope has recalled that august body to a better sense of international dignity.

In all its foreign relations, the United States has never been over-addicted to tact or a regard for the proprieties; and the Senate's action is not unusual. Private individuals, it is true, may express their feelings with more or less freedom, on international as well as on domestic matters; but with public dignitaries the case is different. Their acts (official and unofficial) receive greater weight than those of private persons, and should be governed with a greater degree of caution.

Even though many of our citizens not unnaturally desire freedom for Ireland, it is not within the province of the Senate to demand it. The Executive alone is charged with the recognition of new States. In the Senate, such action can only be considered as a piece of ill-timed meddling, which most nations would be quicker than Great Britain to resent.

Mr. Lloyd George, however, has some understanding of political conditions in this country, and is not altogether led astray by Senatorial ebullitions. Although his analogy between De Valera and Jefferson Davis seems to give too much credit to the former, it serves to remind the Senate of its proper sphere of operations. By rejecting the League of Nations, the Senate announced its intention to stay at home and mind nobody's business but its own. Surely such an announcement is somewhat inconsistent with the Irish resolution, whereby the same Senate plunges its finger, nay, its whole fist into the international pie, and extends a wholly gratuitous insult to a friendly nation. Great Britain is fully as anxious to get rid of the Irish question as the Irish are to get rid of Great Britain. Some day may see the matter adjusted; but that day will not be hastened by the meddling of the Senate.