sily be made out in clear weather. A chain is no
stronger than its weakest link, and it is as hard to see how, even with
the consent of Ulster, the independence of Ireland could be maintained
against the interests and the will of Scotland, as it is easy to see why
Leinster, Munster, and Connaught have been so difficult of control and
assimilation by England. To dream of establishing the independence of
Ireland against the will of Ulster appears to me to be little short of
madness.

At Moira, which stands very prettily above the Ulster Canal, a small
army of people returning from a day in the country to Belfast came upon
us and trebled the length of our train. We picked up more at Lisburn,
where stands the Cathedral Church of Jeremy Taylor, the "Shakespeare of
divines." Here my only companion in the compartment from Dublin left me,
a most kindly, intelligent Ulster man, who had very positive views as to
the political situation. He much commended the recent discourse in
Scotland of a Presbyterian minister, who spoke of the Papal Decree as
"pouring water on a drowned mouse," a remark which led me to elicit the
fact that he had never seen either Clare or Kerry; and he was very warm
in his admiration of Mr. Chamberlain. He told me, what I had heard from
many other men of Ulster, that the North had armed itself thoroughly
when the Home Rule business began with Mr. Gladstone. "I am a Unionist,"
he said, "but I think the Union is worth as much to England as it is to
Ireland, and if England means to break it up it is not the part of
Irishmen who think and feel as I do to let her choose her own time for
doing it, and stand still while she robs us of our property and turns us
out defenceless to be trampled under foot by the most worthless
vagabonds in our own island." He thinks the National League has had its
death-blow. "What I fear now," he said, "is that we are running straight
into a social war, and that will never be a war against the landlords in
Ireland; it'll be a war against the Protestants and all the decent
people there are among the Catholics."

He was very cordial when he found I was an American, and with that
offhand hospitality which seems to know no distinctions of race or
religion in Ireland urged me to come and make him a visit at a place he
has nearer the sea-coast. "I'll show you Downpatrick," he said, "where
the tombs of St. Patrick and St. Bridget and St. Columb are, the saints
sleeping quite at their ease,