e 30th, is looked forward to with some anxiety by the
authorities here. He tells me that he expects to put two thousand
children that day into motion for a grand excursion to Moira; but
although he speaks very plainly as to the ill-will with which a certain
class of the Catholics here regard both himself and his organisation, he
does not anticipate any attack from them. With what seems to me very
commendable prudence, he has resolved this year to put this procession
into the streets without banners and bands, so that no charge of
provocation may be even colourably advanced against it. This is no
slight concession from a man so determined and so outspoken, not to say
aggressive, in his Protestantism as Dr. Hanna; and the Nationalist
Catholics will be very ill-advised, it strikes me, if they misinterpret
it.

He spoke respectfully of the Papal decree against Boycotting and the
Plan of Campaign; but he seems to think it will not command the respect
of the masses of the Catholic population, nor be really enforced by the
clergy. Like most of the Ulstermen I have met, he has a firm faith, not
only in the power of the Protestant North to protect itself, but in its
determination to protect itself against the consequences which the
northern Protestants believe must inevitably follow any attempt to
establish an Irish nationality. Dr. Hanna is neither an Orangeman nor a
Tory. He says there are but three known Orangemen among the clerical
members of the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church, which
unanimously pronounced against Mr. Gladstone's scheme of Home Rule, and
not more than a dozen Tories. Of the 550 members of the Assembly, 538,
he says, were followers of Mr. Gladstone before he adopted the politics
of Mr. Parnell; and only three out of the whole number have given him
their support. In the country at large, Dr. Hanna puts down the
Unionists at two millions, of whom 1,200,000 are Protestants, and
800,000 Catholics; and he maintains that if the Parliamentary
representatives were chosen by a general vote, the Parnellite 80 would
be cut down to 62; while the Unionists would number 44. He regards the
Parnellite policy as "an organised imposture," and firmly believes that
an Irish Parliament in Dublin would now mean civil war in Ireland. He
had a visit here last week, he says, from an American Presbyterian
minister, who came out to Ireland a month ago a "Home Ruler"; but, as
the result of a trip through North-Western