Papal
influence before their eyes. While Belfast as a whole is clean, open,
airy, with splendid streets and magnificent buildings, the Catholic
portions of the city are as much like the pestilent dens of Tuam and
Tipperary as the authorities will permit. The uninstructed stranger
can pick out the Home Rule streets. In Belfast as elsewhere,
sweetness, light, and loyalty are inseparably conjoined, while evil
smells and dinginess are the invariable concomitants of disloyalty and
separatism. Fortunately for the Ulster city, the loyalists number
three to one, which fact accounts for its general cleanliness, the
thriving aspect of its commercial concerns, the decency and order of
its well-kept thoroughfares. And whatever Belfasters want they pay for
themselves. Belfast receives no Government grants for any municipal
purpose, while disloyal Dublin, screaming for equality of treatment,
is largely subsidised from Imperial sources. The Belfast people
entirely support their hospitals. The Dublin hospitals are largely
supported out of the public revenues. The Belfast Botanic Gardens are
kept going by Belfast. The Dublin Botanical Gardens are wholly
supported by Government. Further examples are needless, the facts
being simple as they are undeniable. Dublin gets everything. Belfast
gets absolutely nothing. Disloyalty is at a premium. Motley's the only
wear. The screamers are always getting something to stop their
mouths, a sop, not a gag. Steady, quiet, hard-working folks are of no
account. The Belfast men ask for nothing, and get it. They want no
pecuniary aid, being used to self-help, and liking it best. Stiff in
opinion, they know their own minds, and are accustomed to victory.
They do not in turn threaten and complain and cringe and curse and
fawn. They keep a level course and run on an even keel. They are bad
to beat, and can do with much letting alone. They are pious in their
way, and talk like Cromwell's Puritans. They abhor Popery, judging the
tree by its fruits, a test recommended by their chiefest classic. They
believe that Protestantism is daylight, that Popery is darkness, and
that the sun is rising. They believe with Carlyle that "Popery cannot
come back any more than paganism, which also lingers in some
countries." They also believe with the sage that "there is a perennial
nobleness and even sacredness in Work. Were he never so benighted,
forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man who
actually and ear