gure the devil as being horned. One of the little barefooted
boys who ran after these Protestants is now a holy priest in Tuam. And
what the people were then, so they will be now, once they get the
upper hand. The educated Catholics are excellent people, none better
anywhere, none more tolerant. Nothing to fear from them. But how many
are there? Look at the masses of ignorant people around us. The
density of their ignorance is something that the people of England
cannot understand. They have no examples of it. The most stupid and
uninformed English you can find have some ray of enlightenment. These
people are steeped in ignorance and superstition. Their religion is
nothing but fetichism. Their politics? well, they are blind tools of
the priests: what else can be said? And the priests have but one
object. In all times, in all countries, the Roman Catholic Church has
aimed at absolute dominion. The religious question is at the bottom of
it all."

No matter where an educated Irishman begins, that is where he always
ends. Catholics and Protestants alike come round to the same point at
last, though with evident reluctance. The Protestant Unionists
especially avoid all mention of religion as long as possible. They
know the credal argument excites suspicion. They attack Home Rule from
every other point of view, and sometimes you think you have
encountered a person of different opinion. Wait till he knows you a
little better, has more confidence in your fairness, stands in less
fear of a possible snub. Sooner or later, sure as the night follows
the day, he is bound to say--

"The religious question is at the bottom of it all."

The people of Ireland do not want an Irish Parliament, and the failure
of the bill would not trouble them in the least. They do not care a
brass farthing for the bill one way or the other. The great heart of
the people is untouched. The masses know nothing of it, and will not
feel its loss. They are in the hands of priests and agitators, these
poor unlettered peasants, and their blind voting, their inarticulate
voice, translated into menace and mock patriotism. Everybody admits
that the people would be happy and content if only left alone.
Half-a-dozen ruffians with rifles can boss a whole country side, and
the people must do as they are told. They do not believe in the
secrecy of the ballot. They believe that the priests by their
supernatural powers are able to know how everybody voted, and I am
ass