Chapter 56

The feeling of the other party is still stronger, and has been so often and openly expressed as to stand in no need of proof. Mr. Dillon has threatened to "manage Ulster;" and others have over and over again declared that the Protestant settlers are not Irishmen, and therefore have no right in the country. The lower classes of Irish Nationalists regard an Irish Legislature as an instrument to secure ascendency and plunder. The ruling idea is loot. The Unionists are determined at all costs to maintain religious equality and to hold their own. In Ulster masters and men, landlords and tenants, are of one mind. They do not bluster and brag. Those who represent them as rowdies do them grievous wrong. They are sober, thrifty, industrious, pious. In character they resemble Cromwell's Puritans, or the Scottish Covenanters of old, and no wonder, for they are of the same stock. They are by nature kindly and peaceful, but they become dangerous indeed on the points of liberty, religion, and property. We can partly judge their future by their past. In the dark and troublous days of rebellion they held the country for England, established a police, did for Ireland all that Government neglected to do, and then, having restored order, the small but mighty minority threw aside their arms and went back to their work. They are before everything industrial. Wars and rumours of wars they detest, as injurious to trade, as well as to higher interests. But when they take off their coats they always win. They put into their efforts, whether in war or peace, such a strenuous determination, such an unwavering resolution to succeed, that they become invincible. They have the confidence inspired by invariable success. Their opponents have the flabbiness and the lack of self-reliance resulting from seven hundred years of whining and querulous complaint. If Mr. Gladstone were to offer complete separation to-morrow the Irish leaders dare not take it. They know what would happen if Ulster took the field. Spite of their boasting, Dillon & Co. know full well that their vaunted numbers would avail them naught.

The venerable William Arthur, a Nonconformist minister, says:--"We will not be put under a Parliament in Dublin. The Imperial franchise and all which that guarantees is our birthright. No man shall take it from us. We will never sell it. If Englishmen and Scotchmen will not let us live and die in the freedom we were born to, they will have to come and kill us. On that ground stands the strongest party in Ireland. For as sure as the Home Rule party is the larger, so surely is the Unionist party the stronger. Ask any military man who has spent a few years in the country. Settle the Irish question by putting the stronger party under the weaker! You would only change a count of heads into a trial of strength. Instead of the polling-booth, where nothing counts but heads, you would set for the two parties another trysting place. There brains count, education counts, purses count, habits of hard work count, habits of command and habits of obedience count, habits of success count, delight in overcoming difficulties count, northern tenacity counts, and there are other things which I do not mention that would count. Let not the two parties be summoned to that trysting place!"

During my visit to Belfast I had exceptional opportunities of ascertaining the probabilities of armed resistance to the authority of a Dublin Parliament. I visited what might fairly be called the Ulster War Department, and there saw regular preparation for an open campaign, the arrangements being under the most able and expert superintendence. The tables were covered with documents connected with the sale and purchase of rifles and munitions of war. One of them set forth the particulars of a German offer of two hundred and forty-five thousand Mauser rifles, the arm lately discarded by the Prussian Government, with fifty million cartridges. As I had frequent opportunities of observing the manufacture of a hundred and fifty thousand of these weapons by the National Arms and Ammunition Company of Sparkbrook, I noted the present quotation, which was 16s. each, the cartridges to be thrown in for nothing. Another offer referred to a hundred and forty-nine thousand stand of arms with thirty million cartridges. There were numerous offers from Birmingham, and a large consignment of rifles and bayonets were about to be delivered in Ireland, the entire freight of a small steamer, at a place which I was then forbidden to mention, but which I may now say was Portaferry. An enormous correspondence was submitted to me in confidence, and I was surprised to see how deep and sincere was the sympathy of the working men of England, who with gentlemen of position and influence, and rifle volunteers by thousands were offering their aid in the field should the bill become law. I saw a letter from a distinguished English soldier with an offer of five hundred pounds and two hundred men. Money was coming in plentifully, and all the correspondence was unsought. The office had over fifty thousand pounds in hand, and promises for more than half a million. The forces at that moment, organised and drilled, numbered 164,614, all duly enrolled and pledged to act together anywhere and at any time, many of them already well armed, and the remainder about to be furnished with modern weapons. The Government was becoming nervous. An order from headquarters required a complete survey of the three barracks of Belfast, with an exhaustive report as to their defensive capabilities. Plans of existing musketry loopholes were to be made, and commanding officers were to state if it would be advisable to add to them. Suggestions were invited, and Mr. Morley, who at that very moment was telling Parliament that no precautions were being taken, wanted to know if the said barracks could be held against an organised force of civilians, arriving unexpectedly, and when Tommy Atkins was taking his walks abroad. At the same time, military officers were being secretly sworn in as magistrates. Does this look like the fear of civil war? These statements, made in the _Gazette_ five months ago, have not been contradicted. The rank and file of the English Home Rule party know nothing of this--and by what their priestly allies would call "invincible ignorance" they may be excused their inability to believe in stern resistance to anything. The party of surrender are totally incapable of understanding that men exist who would lay down their lives for a principle. Mr. Gladstone and his Items, like the Irish leaders and their dupes, are easily overmastered. You have only to stand up to them, and they curl up like mongrel curs. But for this fact were would be no Home Rule Bill. Of the two parties the Irish were the stoutest, and the weakest went to the wall. The English Home Rulers cannot conceive that their conquerors could be easily beaten, or even that men can be found to meet them on the field. On the contrary, the men of Ulster who know these heroes hold them in deepest contempt, and in the event of an appeal to arms would treat them as so many mice. Spite of their Army of Independence, the Nationalists tacitly admit this, and would defer separation until they have first by legislative enactments driven away "the English garrison," or compelled Ulster in self-defence to declare against English rule. And, strange to say, they propose to use to this end the force of English arms. They calculate on the resistance of Ulster as a measure of assistance to their own ultimate purposes. "All we have to do is to stand by while British soldiers shoot them down like dogs." That is their expectation, as expressed by one of themselves. Their plans are well hid. But "The best-laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft agley," as the priest-governed schemers may find to their cost.

A second and more recent sojourn in Ulster deepened the impression given by my first visit. Throughout the province the feeling is still the same--an immovable determination to resist at all hazards the imposts of a Dublin Parliament. They will have no acts or part in it. They will send no members, they will pay no taxes, they will not accord to it one jot or tittle of authority. They will offer armed resistance to any force of police or Sheriff's officers acting under warrants issued by the College Green legislators. Resistance to the Queen's authority they regard as altogether out of the question. But it remains to be seen whether British troops will "shoot them down like dogs." The Ulstermen think not, and they have good reasons for this opinion. The mere threat of Home Rule in 1886 cost forty lives in the streets of Belfast alone. Who can say what would be the results of the bill becoming law? Surely every reliable test points in one direction. The Gladstonian party, without a shadow of reason, have affected to doubt the courage and resolution of the Northerners, but the breed of the men and their long history are a sufficient answer to these cavillers. True it is that their courage has not been demonstrated by murder, by shooting from behind a wall, or the battering out of a policeman's brains, a hundred against one, or the discharging of snipe-shot into the legs of old women and young children, after the fashion so popular with the party with whom Mr. Gladstone and his heterogeneous crew are now acting. But for all that, the pluck and tenacity of Ulstermen are undeniable. Their cause is good, and left to themselves they would win hands down.

It is therefore demonstrated by a consensus of the weightiest authorities and by the results of personal investigation that not only would civil war between Irish parties be the inevitable result of Home Rule, but that there would also be war between Ireland and England; that Irish Unionists are determined to resist to the last, and that they possess the means of resistance. They are touched on the subjects they hold most sacred--religion, freedom, property; and despite the assurances of Mr. Gladstone, who desires to judge the Nationalist party by their future, the keen Ulstermen prefer to judge them by their past. And bearing these things in mind, it is not unreasonable to say that Englishmen who support the present policy of the Separatist party are at once enemies of Ireland and traitors to their native land.

And now my task as your Special Commissioner in Ireland is at an end. Without fear or favour I have described the country as I found it, and have exposed the character and the motives of the men to whom Mr. Gladstone would entrust its future government. I was no bigoted partisan when my task began, but in a period of six months I have traversed the country from end to end, and at every step my first impressions have been deepened. It would be a folly--yea, it would be a crime--to withdraw from Ireland that mitigating influence of British rule which alone prevents a lovely island becoming the foul and blood-stained arena of remorseless sectarian strife.

Birmingham, August 18th.

FINIS.

GENERAL INDEX

ACHIL ISLANDS, 244.

AGRICULTURE, Mr. Balfour's aids to, 179 and 370.

"ALL YOU WANT," an Irish Programme, 331.

AMERICAN Tourist's Opinion, 7 and 31; Help for Ireland, 329.

ARAN ISLANDS, 156.

ARMAGH, 291.

ASHBOURNE ACT, Happy results of, 133.

ATHENRY, 177.

BALFOUR, Right Hon. A.J., reception in Belfast, 20; reception in Dublin, 40; Galway Fisheries, 135; Ditto, 140; The Man for Ireland, 152; Aids Agriculture, 179; Secret of Success, 210; List of his Light Railways, 387.

BALLYMENA, Description of, 32.

BANKS, Effects of Home Rule Bill on, 8.

BEGGARS, Irish, 237, 360, and 378.

BELFAST, Newcastle Miners in, 22; Belfast and Dublin Corporations compared, 22; Chamber of Commerce, 29; Riots of 1886, 29; Later Opinions, 317.

BLARNEY STONE, The, 65.

BODYKE, Visit to, 103; History of Estate, 105; Evictions at, 106 and 109; Tenants could Pay, 118.

BOYCOTTING (_see also_ Outrage, &c.). The Darcy Family, 118; Mr. Strachan, of Tuam, 130; Children Starving, 151; For expressing Political Opinions, 227; Father Humphreys on, 264; Mrs. Taylor's Case, 346.

BOYNE, Battle of the, 307.

BUNDORAN, Attack on Protestants at, 384.

CABLES, Nationalists and Atlantic, 11.

CHAMBERLAIN, Right Hon. J., and Mr. Dillon, 297.

CAPPAWHITE, Assault, 53.

CAPITAL, Idle Irish, 200.

CATHEDRALS, Tipperary, 48; Monaghan, 299.

CATHOLICS, Roman, Opinion of Unionist, 14; Hatred of Protestants, 14 (_see also_ Intolerance); The Loyalist, 166 and 266.

CATTLE in living rooms, 245.

CHARACTER SKETCHES--A Kerry Shopkeeper, 69; Philip Fahy, 125; An Old Woman, 148; Local Names, 175; Ladies and their Boots, 178; Bailiffs and Gangers, 182; Achil Car Driver, 247.

CHARITY, Effects of Home Rule Bill on, 7; Hopelessness of helping the Irish by, 238.

CHURCHYARD, an Irish, 223.

CLARE, "Unmanageable Devils," 74; the Curse of County, 81; Civil War in, 102.

COERCION, Irish Legislature and, 114.

CONGESTED DISTRICTS, a precise definition of, 178; Description of, 230.

CORK, Sentiment in, 61.

CREDULITY of Irish, 3, 13, and 119; Belief in Fairies, 138; Hill full of Diamonds, 150.

CROKE, Archbishop, 351.

CUSTOMS, Collection of, under Home Rule, 58.

DE BURGHO, Lady, and Evictions, 113.

DEGRADATION, Glimpses of Irish, 244.

DILLON, John, convicted at Tipperary, 53.

DISLOYALTY (_see also_ Union of Hearts); "To hell with Queen Victoria," 4; the Town Crier, 218; Cursing the Queen, 262; Father Ryan's Manifesto, 276; Irish Press admits, 287; Poem against joining the Army, 364; T.D. Sullivan's Verses, 337.

DONEGAL, Do-Nothing, 371.

DUBLIN, Opinions in, 1; compared with Belfast, 22.

DUGORT, 251.

DUNDALK, 278.

DYNAMITE, Use of, justified, 235; Daly, 275.

EDUCATION, Catholic designs on, 301.

ELECTIONS (_see also_ Voting) in Ulster, 342; False Swearing, 360.

ENGLAND, Apathy of Electors in, 6; Effects of Home Rule on English Industries, 43, also 213 and 372; English Ignorance of Ireland, 238; Not Governed by Englishmen, 279.

EVICTIONS (_see also_ Bodyke). Sadleir case, 57; Ruane, 130; What They Mean, 228; In Queen's County, 334.

FACTORIES, Galway Bag, 141; Ditto, 182; Flour Mills, &c., idle, 200.

FAMINE in Achil, 253; "Please God we'll have a Famine," 255.

FARMERS, English and Irish compared, 99; Irish Petted and Spoiled, 281.

FENIANS, Opinion of, 260; O'Leary and Stephens, 388.

FISHERIES, Priests' Falsehoods about, 94; Galway, 135; Price of Fish, 139; Aran Island, 158; Curing Taught, 181.

FLAX-Growing Neglected, 290.

FOREST Planting in Congested Districts, 180.

FOWL Breeding Encouraged, 370.

FRANCHISE, Effects of lowering, 78.

FREEMASONS, Archbishop Walsh and, 19.

FUNERALS in Connaught, 214.

GAG, _Irish Catholic_ on, 343.

GALWAY, Board of Guardians, 140; Harbour Folly, 175.

GEOGRAPHICAL Necessity, 357.

GLADSTONE, Right Hon. W.E., attacks Parnell, 96; "Oi'm goin' across the Say," 134; Mob Rule, 150; As a "Jumper," 248; his "firm belief," 309; "the party of law and order," 325.

GLADSTONIANS converted in Ireland, 137, 154, and 312.

GORT, Description of, 116.

GRUBB, Sir Howard, 1.

GUARDIANS, Boards of, and Rates, 267.

HARRINGTON, "Tim," 9.

HARVEST Hands for England, Irish, 247, 251, 258; _see also under_ England.

HEALY, "Tim," his parentage, 64.

HOLY WATER, 186.

HOME RULE, a Coffin for, 3; Nationalist Opinions of Bill, 8; How Nationalists will work, 10; A Peasant's View of, 54; Not Yet, 70; Home Rule from Mr. Balfour, 70; Mr. Manley on, 98; Praying against, 120; Masses don't want, 137; "Let us have Chaos," 164; "Can we eat it?" 173; An Irish Criticism of, 215; Who oppose it? 249; _United Ireland_ on, 291; German View of, 305; Its Friends and Enemies, 330; Parnellites dread it now, 376.

HOUGHTON, Lord, 272, 286, 316.

HUMOROUS INCIDENTS narrated: The Phoenix Park Orator, 9; An "Iligant" Tenant, 31; "The Devil's Bite," 56; The Timprance Man, 56; A Lending Transaction, 80; The Galway Fisherman, 124; "When I'm sober," 148; "'Tis Home Rule ye want," 160; Mr. Morley and the Car-driver, 177; The Wild Ass, 181; Michael and the Postal Service, 208; The Cattle Boat, 275; A Question of Feet, 357; An Irish Retort, 364; Finn Water _v._ Purgatory, 354.

IGNORANCE, the Kerry Folks', 68.

IMMIGRATION, Effects of Home Rule on, 210.

IMPROVIDENCE, in Connaught, 124; Irish Farmers', 227.

INTIMIDATION (_see also_ Bodyke), Sadleir's Case, 57; How it is Done, 132.

INTOLERANCE, Irish, 339, 349.

IRELAND, Another Injustice to, 122.

IRISH LANGUAGE, 203.

IRISH NATIONAL FEDERATION, Commissioner attends a "Mass Meeting" of the, 282; Sequel thereto, 371.

IRISH MEMBERS, Popular Opinions of, 8 and 57; Protected by Police, 60; Contempt for, 114; Why Distrusted, 151; Matt Harris, 205; Fenians on, 260.

JURIES, The Cork, 69.

LANDLORDS Must Exist, 117; Tim Healy on, 338.

LAND (_see also_ Rent), Sub-division of, 58; Land Hunger, 99 (_see also_ Summary Article, 396); Tenants Real Owners, 192; a Farmer's View, 225; Must be Worth Something, 228; Land Commission Rewards Idleness, 373.

LAND LEAGUE, Defying the, 65; Reign at Loughrea, 142; Overmatched, 254; Gladstone and Harcourt on, 315.

LAND PURCHASE, Falsehoods about, 144.

LAZINESS, Examples of, 36; Mr. James Dunn on Irish, 123; Mr. McMaster's Offer, 155; In England Work, in Ireland Play, 229; an Excuse for, 245; Death and, 250; "Going to," 378.

LEGISLATION, with a Hard G, 330.

LIES, Nationalist, about Daly, 279; about Westminster, 316; about Mr. Balfour, 344.

LINEN TRADE of Londonderry, 34.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, A Nationalist on, 277.

LOGAN, M.P., False Statements about Rents, 195.

LOGUE, Cardinal, 293; his Father, 357.

LONDONDERRY, Description of, 34.

MACADAM, Mr., Bodyke Agent, 103.

MCFADDEN, Father, his income, 369.

MAGEE, Detective James, 388.

MANSIONS IN RUINS, 184.

MARRIAGE Customs in Connaught, 213; in Achil Islands, 246; Juvenile, 257.

MAYNOOTH, Enemy of England, 76, 326; Dr. Wylie on, 350.

MINES, Delusions about, 121, 145, 212, 233, 358, 362.

MINORITY, The, 296, 312.

MONAGHAN, 299.

MORLEY, Right Hon. John, soliloquy, 89; on the side of crime, 104; tight-fisted, 153; the cab-driver and, 177; police on, 226; philandering, 389.

MULLINGAR, 191.

NATIONALISM, its real nature, 4; _see also_ summary article, 390.

NEWRY, 285.

NOLAN, Colonel, interview with, 126; a Parnellite, 210; assaulted by a priest, 281.

O'BRIEN, WILLIAM, convicted at Tipperary, 53.

O'CALLAGHAN, Colonel, 100.

O'SHAUGHNESSY, Dr., on Home Rule, 115.

ORANGE LODGES, their toleration, 33; demonstrations, 319; charged with rowdyism, 323; constitution of the, 324.

OUTRAGES: Two girls brutally assaulted, 60; fifteen in County Clare, 83; hushing up, 89; dread of, 91; Loughrea, 142; a terrible list of, 167; a fire, 198; Mr. Moloney shot, 199; Castle explosion, 218; Mr. Blood fired at, 281.

PARLIAMENT, an Irish, what it could do, 188; fancy picture of, 268.

PARNELLITES and Anti-Parnellites defined, 270.

PARNELL, Mr., Priests and, 79; secret of his success, 133; still worshipped in Dublin, 277.

PEACE, Ireland needs, 72.

PLEDGES and Promises, Value of Irish, 97.

POLICE, The Dublin, 5; refuse protection at Bodyke, 107; Mr. Morley and the, 226.

PONSONBY Rents, 50.

POST OFFICE Savings Bank, Run on, 8.

POTATO Seed Wasted, 248.

POVERTY, English and Irish, 255.

PRESS, The Irish, 272; on finality, 337.

PRIESTS AND PEOPLE (_see also_ Voting): A terrible danger, 71; priests' one idea, 73; priests at Home Rule Convention, 164; never denounced outrage, 167; people believe anything priest tells them, 204; present day priests, 211; "I am responsible," 242; "admit bearer," 263; "pay, pay, pay, from the cradle to the grave," 325; spiritual tyranny, 332; refusing the sacrament, 348; a loyal priest, 365.

PROTECTIONISTS, 269.

PROTESTANTS, Attack on, at Cappawhite, 53; persecution of, at Tuam, 131; colony at Dugort, 246; why they are Unionists, 380; Bundoran outrage upon, 384.

RAILWAYS--Mr. Balfour's--Cork and Muskerry, 65; the Connemara, 169; a ride on a new line, 174; an engine ride, 230; building on a bog, 231; a dangerous ride, 241; full list of Balfour Light Railways, 387.

REGISTRATION FRAUDS, 341.

RENTS, the Ponsonby, 50; rack renting, 100; quite low enough, 143; what rack rent means, 190; land must be worth something, 228; to whom is rent due? 335; Dublin Corporation tenants and Clanricarde tenants compared, 335; a Donegal rent book, 354.

REPUBLIC, An Irish, 162; could we reconquer? 185.

RIBBONMEN and Nationalists compared, 276.

ROSSMORE, Lord, and Monaghan Town Council, 301.

RUINS, Irish, 310.

SALTHILL, 149.

ST. PATRICK, 307.

SCOTCH and Irish Compared, 286 and 375.

SECURITIES, Effect of Home Rule Bill on, 7.

SECRET Societies, 148.

SENTIMENT, a Priest on Irish, 188.

SMITH Barry, Mr., 50.

SOAP as a remedy for Ireland's ills, 95.

SOLDIERS, Irish Girls and, 79; complaint when withdrawn, 278.

STRABANE Agricultural Show, 375.

STRANORLAR, 352.

STRIKE Leaders and Nationalists compared, 370.

SULLIVAN, T.D., on India, 337.

SUMMARY ARTICLES:-- 1--Irish Nationalism is not Patriotism, 390. 2--Land Hunger: Its Cause, Effect, and Remedy, 396. 3--Clerical Domination and its Consequences. 4--Civil War a certainty of Home Rule.

SUPERSTITION (_see also_ Credulity), the Holy Man, 62.

TENANTS' Losses, 52.

TERRORISM in Dublin, 10; Rev. R. Eager, 12; at Tipperary, 48.

TIPPERARY, New and Old, 48.

TOLERATION, would Catholics show? 300 and 303.

TRADE, Home Rule effects on (_see also_ England), 7 and 65.

TRADITION, Effects of, 76.

TUAM, 128; Indignation Meeting, 220.

ULSTER, Feeling on Home Rule Bill in, 13; Preparation for War, 13; English Sympathy with, 15; Loyalist Programme, 16; Character of Ulstermen, 243; Articles on, 285; "tak a doom'd lot of managin'," 321.

UNION of Hearts, Dublin mob on, 42; "When England's bur-r-sted up," 74; Miss Gonne, 93; Union Jack cut down, 191; "When Britons first at Hell's command" (_see also_ Disloyalty), 197.

VICTORIA Disaster, Irish opinion of, 297.

VOTING, Priests and, 263, 332; Priests endowed with a thousand votes, 353; Regulations wanted against priests, 360.

WALSH, Archbishop, 274.

WAR, Preparations for, in Ulster, 13; Mr. Morley's precautions, 27; Ireland's policy when England is at war, 314; Danger of civil war, 409.

WORTHINGTON, Mr. Robert, on ruin by Home Rule, 43.

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