'We know why you uphold Unionism'--that is, as they
believe, landlordism--'for the landlords are English and Protestant;
your position is understandable.' But to the Catholic they say, 'You
are not only an enemy, but a renegade, a traitor, and a deserter.' And
whatever that man's position may be, the people can make things
uncomfortable for him."

Another Catholic living near, said: "'How would Home Rule work?' you
ask. Most destructively, most ruinously. Under the most favourable
circumstances, whether Home Rule passes or not, the country will not
recover the shock of the present agitation for many a year; not, I
think, in my lifetime. I was over in the North of England last year,
and I found that the people there knew nothing of the question,
literally nothing. Clever men, intelligent men, men who had the ear of
the people, displayed a profundity of ignorance on Irish questions,
conjoined with a confidence in discussing them, surpassing belief.
They changed their minds on hearing my statements, and on obtaining
exact information. I must give them credit for that. I believe the
English Gladstonians are only suffering from ignorance. Their leader
is certainly not less ignorant than the bleating flock at his heels.
They smugly argue from the known to the unknown on entirely false
premises. They know that when Englishmen act in this or that way, such
and such things will happen. They know what they themselves would do
in certain conjunctures, and when they are told by Irishmen that
Irishmen under similar conditions would act quite differently, they
snort and say 'nonsense.' They are too dense to appreciate the radical
difference between the two races. The breeds don't mix and don't
understand each other. It was miserable to hear these men--I am sure
they were good men--prattling like bib-and-tucker babies about Irish
affairs, and speaking of Gladstone as possessing a quality which we
Catholics only ascribe to the Pope. Ha! ha! They think that vain old
cataract of verbiage to be infallible. He knows nothing of the matter,
does not understand the tools he is working with, any one of whom
could buy and sell him and simple, clever Morley twenty times over.
Both Gladstone and Morley _are_ clever in books, in words, in
theories, adepts in debating, smart and adroit in talk. But they know
no more of Paddy than the babe unborn. I say nothing of Harcourt and
the other understrappers. They'll say anything that suits, whatever it