ll the
advantages of the former with the addition of a harbour and good
fishing grounds. "Look at the condition of the country," say the Home
Rulers. "Behold the poverty of the peasantry," they continually do
cry. The visible nakedness of the land is their chief and most
effective argument. The Unionist answer is conclusive, and of itself
should be enough to demolish the Nationalists. See the Protestant
communities of Ireland,--all, without exception, advancing in
prosperity. They have no advantages which are denied to the
Nationalists. On the contrary, they live in the comparatively bleak
and unfertile North, which by their unceasing industry they have
developed to its fullest extent. They have tilled the ground until it
resembles a garden, they have deepened the rivers, built harbours,
created industries, been in every way successful. And all under
precisely the same laws, the same government. The richest spots of
Ireland, if inhabited by Keltic Irish, are steeped in poverty. The
poorest spots, if inhabited by men of Saxon blood, become fat and
well-liking. The fate of men lies mostly in themselves. This comes out
forcibly in Ireland. Race, breed, heredity, call it what you will, in
Ireland thrusts its influence on you, whether you will or no.
Neighbouring towns, neighbouring farms, neighbouring cottages, present
a series of striking contrasts, ever in favour of the Saxon, ever
against the Kelt. The latter has not yet discovered that the secret
word, the open sesame of the difficulty, the charm which only can give
permanent comfort, is--Work. Nor has his race the spirit of mechanical
invention or industrial enterprise, without which College Green
Parliaments may sit in vain. The pure-blooded Kelt is easily
discouraged, and no man sooner knows when he is beaten. More than
this, he always expects to be beaten, so that he is beaten before he
begins. As a talker he is unequalled, and in this long-eared age, when
the glibbest gabbler is reckoned the greatest man, his agitators have
floated to the front. The Ballyshannon people can talk with the
volubility of a Hebrew cheap Jack, but their jaw-power, like their
water-power, mostly runs to waste. They have the silly suspicion and
the childish credulity of the Donegal rural districts. A fluent
politician said, "Why are all the Protestants Unionists? Perfectly
simple, that. Because they are all well off. There you are. And being
well off, they want no change. That's their self