as a mere man; if they did they might have some prejudice
against him, for all had their shortcomings. 'The priest is the
ambassador of Jesus Christ, and not like other ambassadors. He carries
his Lord and Master about with him, and when the priest is with the
people Almighty God is with them.' That is what Father Fay reckoned
himself. Almighty God, no less. He alluded to the consecrated wafers
he had in his pocket. The doctrine of transubstantiation is here
invoked to assist in carrying a Home Rule candidate of the right
clerical shade. And all the awful language used from the altar, in the
confessional, all the threats of eternal damnation, and burning in the
fires of hell, all the refusals of mass, and to hear dying
confessions, were directed against another section of the Home Rule
party, and not against a Unionist at all. How does this promise for
the working of an Irish Parliament?

"I note that the English Home Rule papers say nothing good of the
bill. They are always praising the management of the Old Parliamentary
Hand. They beslaver him with fulsome adoration. They cannot point out
anything good in the provisions of the bill, nor in the central idea
of the bill, but they must fill up somehow, and they praise his
artfulness, how he dodged this, and dexterously managed that. They
have nothing but admiration for his jugglery and House-of-Commons
tricks. They bring him down to the level of a practised conjuror or a
thimblerigger. But, with all his wonderful cleverness, he is not
admired or supported by any intelligent body of public men. The
gag-trick ought to settle him. We in Ulster feel sure that a general
election to-morrow would for ever deprive him of power. Of course the
Old Hand knows that, and will not give the country an opportunity of
pronouncing judgment. He and his flock of baa-lambs will put off the
day of reckoning as long as ever they can. Either on the present or
next year's register he is bound to be badly beaten. His course is
clear. He used to have three courses open to him, but now he has only
one. He must try to weather the storm until he has a chance of faking
the voters' lists so as to improve his own chances. It is said that
Mr. Henry Fowler is already preparing such a scheme. Like enough. If
tricks will win, I back the G.O.M. There are more tricks in him than
in a waggon-load of monkeys. The strangest thing I ever saw or ever
heard of is the calmness with which the English people take the