lers a bit. How can I do so, when I
myself was just as ignorant? Had I remained in Liverpool I should have
remained a Home Ruler. I am certain of that. Unless you actually live
in the country you cannot gauge its feeling, and the Irish people are
very difficult to understand. I have always got along with them
famously, and I shall take ninety per cent. of our workmen with me to
England. No, Home Rule has nothing to do with the removal of the
works.

"My cousin and I worked like horses to get in Mr. Neville for the
Exchange Division of Liverpool. We actually won, for by a piece of
adroit management we polled a number of votes which would certainly
have remained unpolled, and we polled them all for our man, who won by
a very small majority, eleven, I think. I would willingly go to
Liverpool to undo that work, as I now see how completely I was
mistaken in my views of the Irish question. I was always a great
Radical, and such I shall always remain; but as a Radical I am bound
to support what is best for the masses of the people, and I am
convinced that Home Rule would reduce the country to beggary.
Bankruptcy must and will ensue, and with the flight of the landowners
and the destruction of confidence, employment will be unobtainable.
Who will embark capital in Ireland under present circumstances?"

A financial authority told me that poor Ireland has thirty-six
millions of uninvested money lying idle in the banks. The Irish not
only lack enterprise, but they will not trust each other. Great
opportunities are lying thickly around, but they seem unable to avail
themselves of the finest openings. Mr. Smith, of Athlone, makes twelve
and a half miles of Irish tweed every week, and sells it rather faster
than he can make it. He commenced with two shillings a week wages, and
now he owns a factory and employs five hundred people. A Black
Protestant, of course. Mr. Samuel Heaton, of Bradford, is about to go
and do likewise. I went over his place an hour ago, and this is what
he said:--"This was a flour mill which cost L10,000 to build. The
machinery would cost L10,000 more, I should think. It did well for
many years, and then it was left to three brothers, who disputed about
it until the concern was ruined as a paying business, and the place
was allowed to lie derelict. The water power alone cost them L100 a
year, and goodness knows what these splendid buildings would be worth.
The Board of Works had got hold of it, and it was unde