h the influence of the Vatican was making itself felt in English
politics by pointing to the number of Catholics--mostly Irishmen--who
held high posts in the British Diplomatic, Civil, Military, and Naval
Services, the presence of whom, which he tried to indicate as a menace,
but which most Englishmen view with equanimity, shows by contrast the
extent to which a taboo is placed in Ireland on officials who adhere to
the creed of the majority of their countrymen.
Enough has been said as to the preference shown to one caste, religious
and political, to explain the reason for the fact that in Ireland the
_soi-disant_ loyalist has become synonymous with place-hunter. If
Unionism in Ireland pervades the richer classes, it does so also in
Great Britain, but in Ireland the inherent weakness of an established
Church, by which its prestige and the cachet which it gives, make it a
harbour of refuge for those who wish for advancement, and who think that
if they creep and intrude and climb into the fold they will secure it,
all these are factors, which are present in Dublin, where the
Establishment is Unionism with Dublin Castle as its cathedral. Social
ambition, anxiety for preferment or for an _entree_ into society, are
all at work to bring it to pass that a large amount of wealth and
influence are ranged on the side of the Union. It is a damaging
indictment which has been drawn up against the Irish landlords by Mr.
T.W. Russell in his recent book, where he declares of this class, with
which he fought side by side against the two Home Rule Bills, that he
has come to the conclusion, slowly but surely, "that in pretending to
fight for the Union these men were simply fighting for their own
interests, that Rent and not Patriotism was their guiding motive,"[26]
and the same charge was formulated a few years ago by Lord Rossmore, a
former Grand Master of the Orange Society, when he made a public
declaration that the so-called Loyalist minority in Ireland were blindly
following the lead of a few professional politicians, who felt that
their salaries and positions depended on the divisions and antipathies
of those who should be working together for the good of their common
country.
There is no aspect of the Irish question in regard to which more dust is
thrown in Englishmen's eyes than that which is summed up in the one word
disloyalty. The prestige of the Crown in Great Britain, where its
functions are atrophied to a greater extent th
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