. This Parliament has done for Ireland what it
would have scrupled to do for England or Scotland."

"What are the inequalities of England and Ireland? I declare that I
know none, except that there are certain taxes still remaining, which
are levied over Englishmen and Scotchmen, and which are not levied
over Irishmen; and, likewise, that there are certain purposes for
which public money is freely and largely given in Ireland, and for
which it is not given in England and Scotland."

I read this deliverance to my Gladstonian friend, who was staggered to
learn upon incontrovertible evidence, to wit, the printed report of
his speech, that these were the publicly expressed opinions of the
Grand Old Man, whose pandering to Irish opinion as expressed by
outrage dates from the time of the Clerkenwell explosion. That his
conversion to Home Rule is entirely attributable to the endless
murders and atrocities of the Land League, the Invincibles, and other
Fenian organisations, is universally admitted in Ireland by Unionists
and Nationalists alike. And once an Irish Parliament is granted, how
will he resist the demand for Irish independence, for the Irish
Republic affiliated with America? Query--if a given number of murders
were required to bring about Home Rule, how many murders will be
required to effect complete separation? A mere question in arithmetic.

Concurrently with the compulsory withdrawal of the Union Jack
displayed by my friend Mrs. Gibson, of Northern Hotel, Londonderry,
another occurrence, this time in the South, will serve to attest the
progress made by the inventor and patentee of the Union of Hearts.
During the progress of a cricket match on the Killarney Athletic
Grounds, between the clubs of Limerick and Kerry, on Whit-Monday, a
Union Jack was hoisted, not as a political banner, but as an ornament,
and the only banner available for the purpose. It was left flying when
the cricketers went home, but in the morning it lay prone and
dishonoured. The forty-foot spar had been sawn through, and in falling
had smashed the palings. Let a chorus of musical Gladstonians march
through Ireland bearing the Union Jack and singing "God save the
Queen," let them do it, with or without police protection, and I will
gladly watch their progress, record their prowess, and will have great
pleasure in writing their obituary notice. The people, as a whole, are
enemies to England. They are filled with a blind, unreasoning,
implacable