viewed the leading
citizens, the clergy, nobility, and gentry. This time I spoke with
artisans and craftsmen, and I found the same feeling, a deep and
immovable resolve to fight till the last extremity. It should be
remembered that all Ulstermen are not Orangemen. But the religious
bodies which have held aloof from Orangeism are just as determined. On
the Irish Church question the Orange body stood alone. The dissenting
sects were against them everywhere. All are united now, and the
attempt to force Home Rule on these resolute men would be attended by
the most awful consequences. They are not of a breed that easily
knocks under. They remind you of the Scottish Covenanters. They are
men with whom you would rather dine than fight. In Belfast, besides
Mr. Fullwood, of Birmingham, previously mentioned, I met with Mr.
Lyons, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who in his walks abroad in the city had
put down in his pocket-book the names of all streets he judged to be
exclusively Catholic. He was right save in three cases, where the
people were mixed. He also observed that in the poorer quarters the
windows of all Protestant places of worship were protected by wire
netting, but that the Catholic chapels were not so protected. As the
Protestants are three to one, he thought this a curious commentary on
the statements anent Orange rowdyism. Mr. Deacon, of Manchester, and
the Englishmen hereinbefore mentioned were present at the Orange Hall,
and all saw what I have related. Mr. Henry Charlton, J.P., of
Gateshead-on-Tyne, agrees with them that the religious question is the
secret of the whole agitation, and that the sooner a leading statesman
meets the Home Rule movement on this, the true ground, the better for
the country. "We are too squeamish in England. We fear to offend our
Catholic friends, with whom there is no fault to be found. But we want
an influential speaker to say at once that the conflict is reality
between Protestantism and Popery. The best plan would be to state
things as they are, and to meet the enemy directly." So spoke one of
these visitors, a gentleman of great political experience. Is this
opinion not well worth consideration? Is not the time for soft
speaking nearly over?

Mr. Dillon says he will manage Ulster. He will need the British Army
at his back. His Army of Independence will not avail him much. The
position of the Nationalist members towards Ulster is not unlike that
of the Chinaman who wanted an English sailor