is
hardly to be conceived that Ulster Unionists really fear Roman Catholic
tyranny. The fear is unmanly and unworthy of them. To anyone who has
lived in an overwhelmingly Catholic district, and seen the complete
tranquillity and safety in which Protestants exercise their religion, it
seems painfully abnormal that a great city like Belfast, with a
population more than two-thirds Protestant, should become hysterical
over Catholic tyranny. It would be physically impossible to enforce any
tyrannical law in Ulster or anywhere else, even if such a law were
proposed, and many leading Protestants from all parts of Ireland have
stated publicly that they have no fear of any such result from Home
Rule.[71]

"Loyalty" to the Crown is a false issue. Disloyalty to the Crown is a
negligible factor in all parts of Ireland. Loyalty or disloyalty to a
certain political system is the real matter at issue. At the present day
the really serious objections to Home Rule on the part of the leading
Ulster Unionists seem to be economic. They have built up thriving trades
under the Union. They have the closest business connections with Great
Britain, and a mutual fabric of credit. They cherish sincere and
profound apprehensions that their business prosperity will suffer by any
change in the form of government. To scoff at these apprehensions is
absurd and impolitic in the last degree. But to reason against them is
also an almost fruitless labour. Those who feel them vaguely picture an
Irish Parliament composed of Home Rulers and Unionists, in the same
proportion to population as at present, and divided by the same bitter
and demoralizing feuds. But there will be no Home Rulers after Home
Rule, that is to say, if the Home Rule conceded is sufficient. I believe
that Ulster Unionists do not realize either the beneficent
transformation which will follow a change from sentimental to practical
politics in Ireland, as it has followed a similar change in every other
country in the Empire, or the enormous weight which their own fine
qualities and strong economic position will give them in the settlement
of Irish questions.

Nor do they realize, I venture to think, that any Irish Government,
however composed, will be a patriotic Government pledged and compelled
for its own credit and safety to do its best for the interests of
Ireland. I have never met an Irishman who was not proud of the northern
industries, and it is obvious that the industrial prosperi