ng.

Unionism and order: Separatism and ordure--that is about the sum.

Castlereagh, June 24th.

No. 40.--OBJECT LESSONS IN IRISH SELF-GOVERNMENT.

A small town with a great name, about one hundred miles west of
Dublin. There is a ruined castle, and one or two ruined abbeys, but
nothing else of interest, unless it be the herons which stalk about
the streams in its environs, and the Royston crows with white or gray
breast and back, which seem to be fairly numerous in these parts.
Ireland is a wonderful country for crows and ravens, which hop about
the village streets as tame as barndoor fowls. A King of Connaught is
buried in Saint Coenan's Abbey, but dead kings are almost as common as
crows, and Phelim O'Connor seems to have done nothing worthy of
mention beyond dying in 1265. I had hardly landed when I met a very
pronounced anti-Home Ruler, a grazier, apparently a smart business
man, and seemingly well up in the controversy. He said:--"I have
argued the question all over Ireland, and believe I have made as many
converts as anybody. Many of my countrymen have been carried away by
the popular cry, but when once they have the thing put to them from
the other side, and have time to think, they begin to have their
doubts. Naturally they first lean to the idea of an Irish Parliament.
It flatters Irish feeling, and when men look around and see the
country so poor and so backward they want to try some change or other.
The agitators see their opportunity, and say, 'All this results from
English interference. If we managed our own affairs we should be
better off all round.' This sounds plausible, and agrees with the
traditional distrust of England which the people have inherited from
past ages. Men who are fairly intelligent, and fairly reasonable, will
say, 'We can't be worse off than we are at present.' That is a stock
argument all over the country. The people who use it think it settles
the business. The general poverty of the people is the strength of the
Home Rule position. The priests tell them that a Government composed
of Irishmen would see them right, and would devote itself to looking
after their interests; and really the people have nobody to tell them
anything else. Nor are they likely to hear the other side, for they
are only allowed to read certain papers, and if Englishmen of
character and ability were to attempt to stump the country they would
not get a hearing. The clergy would make it warm for anybo