this connection of the Irish Party were appreciated
by the head of the Catholic Church in England is seen by the very
gracious letter which Archbishop Bourne addressed to Mr. Redmond at the
end of the session of 1906, and it is significant that the letter of
protest against the Archbishop's action in regard to the moderate
counsels to secure a compromise on the part of the Irish, which was sent
by certain English Catholic Peers to the Catholic bishops of Great
Britain, was treated by the latter, with only two exceptions, with the
contumelious neglect which its disloyalty, the outcome of Tory
_intransigeance_, deserved.

English Catholics, among whom knights harbingers and banneret bearers of
the Primrose League are numerous, who have leant all their weight in the
scale to maintain the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, have been ever
ready when occasion arose to appeal to the religious loyalty of the
Irish members to support their interests. Their position has not been
very dignified, and its fruits will perhaps be seen if the reduction of
the Irish representation enters the sphere of practical politics. Party
loyalty will claim their support, but at the same time they will realise
that if they give it they will be taking a step to reduce the only body
in the House of Commons which can ever hope to represent Catholic
principles and uphold Catholic interests.

I do not know whether it struck many people in the course of the general
election that the country in which the elections made the least
difference was the one of the three kingdoms in which politics claim
most public attention. There was a monotony in the unopposed returns,
and, in the result, in the place of 80 Nationalists, 1 Liberal, and 22
Unionists, there appeared 83 Nationalists, 3 Liberals, and 18 Unionists,
To appreciate the full force of these numbers one must realise,
moreover, that of the Unionists in both cases, two out of the total
represent University seats, the Conservative nature of which, whether in
England, Ireland, or Scotland, is one of the features of political life
which is, it appears, immutable. A study of the results shows that
Unionism is in a minority in Ulster. There are in the present Parliament
15 Unionists as against 15 Nationalists, who, with 3 Liberals, go to
make up the 33 members sitting at Westminster for that province.

These figures relieve me from the necessity of entering a caveat against
the use of the word Ulster as thou