Belfast is true also on a
smaller scale of all the other towns north of the Boyne.

This remarkable contrast between the progress of the north-east and
the stagnation of the rest of the country is no new thing. It has been
observed ever since the Union. So long ago as 1832 the Report of the
Commission on the linen manufacture of Ireland contained the following
words:--

"Political and religious animosities and dissensions, and
increasing agitation first for one object and then for
another have so destroyed confidence and shaken the bonds of
society--undermined men's principles and estranged
neighbour from neighbour, friend from friend, and class
from class--that, in lieu of observing any common effort
to ameliorate the condition of the people, we find every
proposition for this object, emanate from which party it may,
received with distrust by the other; maligned, perverted and
destroyed, to gratify the political purposes of a faction....
The comparative prosperity enjoyed by that portion of Ireland
where tranquillity ordinarily prevails, such as the Counties
Down, Antrim, and Derry, testify the capabilities of Ireland
to work out her own regeneration, when freed of the disturbing
causes which have so long impeded her progress in civilization
and improvement. We find there a population hardy, healthy and
employed; capital fast flowing into the district; new sources
of employment daily developing themselves; a people well
disposed alike to the government and institutions of their
country; and not distrustful and jealous of their superiors.
Contrast the social condition of these people with such
pictures as we have presented to us from other districts."

This energetic, self-reliant and prosperous community now see before
their eyes what the practical working of government by the League is.
They see it generally in the condition of the country, and especially
in the Dublin Convention of 1909, the narrow-minded administration of
the Local Government Act wherever the power of the League prevails,
and the insecurity for life and property in the west; they know also
that a Home Rule Government must mean increased taxation (as the
Nationalists themselves confess) which will probably--in fact, one may
almost say must certainly, as no other source is available--be thrown
on the Ulster manufactures; is it not therefore a matter of life and