he
Unitarians, the most radical of all the sects, believe it; the
Quakers, who never before made a public deliverance of opinion in any
political matter, believe it; and all these have issued printed
declarations of their belief. The Roman Catholic laity, the best of
them, believe it; but the Catholic Bishops say No, they will not admit
the soft impeachment. And Englishmen who are Gladstonians believe
these Bishops in preference to all the sects I have enumerated. Could
anything be more unreasonable? But it is of a piece with the whole
conception of the bill, which seems to contain every possible
absurdity, and is based on extravagant assumptions of amity on the
part of Irish Catholics, of which there is not one particle of
evidence in existence. All the evidence points the other way, and
Irish Protestants know that under Home Rule their fate is sealed.
There would be no open persecution, but we should be gently elbowed
out of the country. All who could leave Ireland would do so at once,
and England would lose her most powerful allies in the enemy's camp.
For it is the enemy's camp, and this fact should be borne in mind. Mr.
Gladstone and his followers would be horrified to hear such a
statement, which they would regard as rank blasphemy. But every
Irishman knows it, and every Englishman knows it who lives here long
enough to know anything. Irish Nationalists have two leading ideas--to
get as much out of England as possible, and to damage her as much as
possible by way of repayment. Mr. Gladstone wants to put England's
head on the block, to hand an axe to her sworn enemy, and to say, 'I'm
sure you won't chop.' People who have common sense stand amazed,
dumbfounded at so much stupidity."

A pious Catholic bore out the statements of my first Achil friend with
reference to the comparative comfort of the Islanders. He said:--"We
live mostly on bread and tea. Of course we have plenty of butter and
eggs, and now and then we go out and get some fish. I had a go at a
five-pound white trout to-day, with plenty of butter and potatoes. At
Dugort people who live in cabins have money in the bank, aye, some of
them have several hundred pounds. And yet they took the seed potatoes
sent by England. Well, they wanted a change of seed, and they must do
the same as their neighbours. It would not do to pretend to be any
better off than the rest. They are compelled to do as the majority do
in everything, or they would be boycotted at once.