Chapter XXV: Section 5: dealing with the provinces almost recall the centralising (2)

I should know something about Ireland, as I was born in Ulster, in which province I lived for seventeen years, and naturally I then and there learned to know something of the manners and customs and feelings of Ulstermen. From Ulster I migrated to Leinster, where I spent eight years in the city of Dublin, six of these years in the University of Dublin, in which ancient seat of learning I was for four years a student in Arts, and for two in the Divinity School. On my ordination in 1865, I entered on clerical life in the Diocese of Cloyne, County of Cork; in which diocese I have remained ever since for the long period of close on forty-seven years. Therefore I say I ought to know something of Ireland and the Irish question; having been born in Ireland and having lived so long in it in three out of the four provinces. Moreover, I have been a regular student of Irish history, to some extent of the Irish language, and of Irish Archæology, and, as an Irish Antiquary, I have seen much of my native land in each and every Province. Strangers seem to think it very easy to make up their mind on the Irish question—you have only to take a return-ticket from Euston to Killarney, or from Paddington to Rosslare and the thing is done! I once heard His Grace Dr. Healy, the Archbishop of Tuam, tell a story about the way to acquire an English accent. He said that a certain Dublin Alderman, with a fine Dublin brogue, crossed from Kingstown to Holyhead; the passage was a rough one; there was much of “the wonderful up-and-down motion, that comes from the treacherous ocean.” So much indeed that the poor alderman lay sick in his berth in Holyhead harbour, and returned in the same boat without landing. But—“lo and behold you, sir,” as we say in Ireland—he came home with a fine English accent, which he never lost in later life! Well, some English visitors seem to have the same impression about the rapidity and facility with which they can make up the Irish question. “God help them” is all one can say. I am really not jesting or romancing at all! Within the present week an English literary lady called on me to interview me. Unfortunately I was out at the time, but she left a message to the effect that “she was going to write a book on Ireland,” and wished to talk to me about it! She had only been in the country a few days when she came to this conclusion! This reminds me of the story of a certain English nobleman who, when making the grand tour of Europe, found himself at Rome. He had an interview with the Pope of the period. He asked him could he see and know Rome in a few days time? The Pope replied: “You will imagine you know a good deal of it by that time.” “Well in a few weeks?” “You will then know less.” “In a few months?” “Still less.” “In a few years?” “Hardly anything at all.”

Well, is not this a parallel for the Irish question? It requires the study of a life-time almost to grapple with it at all—at least in any fairly satisfactory and complete form—in any really candid and impartial way. I may perhaps be permitted to say that another educational force in my own training on the subject has been, that I love intensely the country and the people. Froude opens his charming essay “A Fortnight in Kerry” thus:

“We have heard much of the wrongs of Ireland, the miseries of
Ireland, the crimes of Ireland; every cloud has its sunny side;
and, when all is said, Ireland is still the most beautiful island
in the world, and the Irish themselves, though their temperament
is ill-matched with ours, are still amongst the most interesting
of peoples.”

This affectionate feeling should not be left out of consideration by outsiders who wish to understand the Irish Question. It has exercised an undying and indestructible influence upon the people of the country, and in certain respects a most beneficial influence. For example, many outsiders foolishly imagine that Irishmen are very volatile and variable; in some minor respects they may be, but in the main, no—it is absolutely otherwise. Can you find in the history of any other country greater fidelity to her own religious and political ideals than Ireland has shown over and over again—as we say “ever and always?”

Perhaps the preface to this paper seems unduly prolonged, but the reader must bear with it somewhat further, as it is necessary.

An objector may say to me that I have no right to speak for my fellow Irish Churchmen _en masse_, as regards their relations with their Roman Catholic fellow countrymen. Well, in answer to such an objection, which may be natural enough, there are several replies. I intend to speak from my own first-hand, definite, personal, life-long experiences, such as they have been. And is not the inference sufficiently fair and logical that others of my clerical brethren, similarly situated, have had just the same, or much the same, experiences if they would record them? I do not claim that our Roman Catholic neighbours have been kinder to me than to other Protestant clergy. Testimony from us in the South and West of Ireland is more valuable than testimony from Ulster. In Leinster, Munster and Connaught, we are brought more directly and distinctly face to face with the Roman Church. She has a dominant, nay, a pre-dominant position in these three provinces, and yet I hold that this vast numerical superiority of position does not lead to intolerant or unkindly action. I believe that there is far more real kindly feeling and kindly intercourse between Protestants and Roman Catholics in these Irish provinces than there is in Ulster—and, therefore, I maintain that Irish Protestant Churchmen who live in these provinces, have a far better right to judge and speak of the relative attitude of the two churches than the people of Ulster. For we, who do so live, have a larger knowledge and experience and outlook than the men of Ulster, whose views are in every sense narrower—geographically, politically and religiously. They indeed need to be reminded of the German proverb: “Hinter dem Berge sind auch Leute” (Behind the mountains there are also people). We all need to study this saying. Behind the mountains of our knowledge, of our civilisation, of our success and activity; behind the mountains, let us also say, of our ignorance, of our pride and prejudice, of our contempt—there are also men.

Of course it is much pleasanter to be able to feel kindly and to speak kindly of the great majority of one’s fellow-countrymen if it can be done truthfully, as we believe it can—than to have to say and do the contrary. Even allowing for a certain element of unreality and exaggeration and insincerity, is not the uniform tone of too many political speeches much too violent and even occasionally too vitriolic? But I have little or no temptation to err in this respect, as the bulk of what remains to be said in this paper is chiefly concerned with facts. Two years after my ordination, the Fenian Rising occurred; this took place in 1867. I saw something of it, not of the Fenians themselves, but of the flying columns which were then scouring the country in pursuit of them. The police barrack at Kilmallock was attacked, and Protestant gentry living near Kilfinane in the same county, viz., Limerick, left their houses for several nights and took refuge with the Constabulary. There was at that time living at Kilfinane as rector, the Rev. George Wren. He was, as a clergyman, greatly beloved and respected. When some of his parishioners, most of them gentry, were leaving their homes for police protection, the Roman Catholic farmers in the parish waited on the Rev. George Wren at the rectory, and begged and intreated of him not to leave it, assuring him that “no one should lay a wet finger” on him or any member of his family. In consequence of this interview the Rev. Mr. Wren held his ground, and was the only Protestant gentleman in the immediate district who did so. It was exceedingly creditable to him, and to the deputation who waited on him. I have never forgotten this incident.

I remember well the excitement produced in Irish church circles by Mr. Gladstone’s Church Act in 1869 and 1870; how it was denounced, condemned and deplored; how it was described as fraught with wreck and ruin to Protestant interests. One clerical speaker warned Queen Victoria that she might have “her Crown kicked into the Boyne” (if she gave her Royal assent), as James II. had. A friend of my own, a captain in the Army, assured me he was prepared to wade knee-deep in blood to fight the Bill.

We are not unaccustomed to politicians of this type even now! Well, Mr. Gladstone passed his Church Act, which has proved in many respects a great blessing to the Irish Church. She gained self-action and independence thereby; her finances have been so skilfully administered and the liberality of her members has been so great that she has now a realised capital of over nine millions! It is estimated that for her numbers she is, in money, the richest Church in Christendom. None of us who belong to her would revert, were the offer open to us, to the state of her condition and circumstances prior to 1869—“Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” How true that parable of Samson’s has often proved with regard to changes which were, at first, denounced and dreaded, and afterwards regarded with gratitude! Generally, the effect produced on Irish public opinion by Mr. Gladstone’s Church Act, on the whole, was in time beneficial. It removed what was at least a “sentimental grievance” from Roman Catholics. It also taught them before very long that the Church of Ireland could exist as a voluntary institution; and some Nationalists from time to time have even said that the efficient and capable management of the Representative Church Body of the Church funds was an object lesson in favour of Home Rule.

Every one at all familiar with this subject knows that 1881 was a very terrible year in Ireland; it is unnecessary to enlarge upon the painful fact. Then, or thereabouts, I went to see a land-agent whose life had several times been attempted. It was in the summer; he was writing at a tall, stand-up desk, on the upper ledge of which lay a revolver. I sat down by an open window to enjoy the fresh air, from which he immediately pulled me away and deposited me in a corner of the room under shelter of a wall, not of glass. Presently we adjourned to the dining-room for lunch. This was also an arsenal or place of arms; a double-barrelled gun lay on a sofa. When my friend opened a press to obtain “the materials”—Irishmen will know what is meant—I saw therein a brace of horse-pistols. After lunch we went out for a walk, my friend carrying his gun under his arm, and, I suppose, his revolver in his pocket. A policeman armed with a loaded rifle, followed a few yards in our rear. Life under such circumstances could not have been very agreeable. Would anyone like to revert to it? Surely not. In the same year I was visiting an Irish landlord who was very seriously ill; his home was about four miles distant from my glebe house; sometimes I had to go to see him by night. One morning the doctor, who had been with the patient for several hours, was anxiously inquired of by the ladies of the family how their father was. “Well, all I have to say to you,” said the doctor, “is, that you may be very thankful that your father is allowed to die quietly in his bed such times as these.”

Well, what has improved such terrible times? Has it not been remedial legislation in different directions—legislation respecting the Church, the Land, and Education. Yet in all such cases remedial legislation has been initially denounced by a certain party as “Socialism,” “Sacrilege,” or by some equally strong expletive. And yet, what has been the result of these so-called “Socialistic” and “Sacrilegious” measures? Has it not, on the whole, and in the main, been good, decidedly and undeniably good? Let us apply our Blessed Lord’s text: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Can any man gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?” So, then, when I look back to these past painful experiences, and see how all proposed remedial legislation was, in the first instance, denounced and vilified, and when I recall how the results in time have refuted all the prophets of evil, I am quite inclined to say, is not the balance of evidence in favour of the view that something very much the same will be the case, and will happen with Home Rule? It is now constantly described by one leader as “A Nefarious Conspiracy.” Of course, different Parliamentary orators have their own favourite vocabularies, but is it not very much a case of:

“All now is wrangle, abuse and vociferance.”

“One is incisive, corrosive;
Two retorts nettled, curt, crepitant;
Three makes rejoinder, expansive, explosive;
Four overbears them all, strident and strepitant;
Five.... O Danaides, O Sieve.”

“Now they ply axes and crowbars;
Now they prick pins at a tissue;
Fine as a skein of the Casuist Escobar
Worked on the bone of a lie—To what issue?
Where is our gain at the Two-bars?”

Juvenal said of some Roman lawyers of his own day: “Iras et verba locant.” They still do it.

Here perhaps I may with advantage introduce some remarks made by me in Cork City on March 21st at a meeting of the County Technical Instruction Committee on the occasion of proposing a vote of congratulation to our Chairman the Bishop of Cloyne, on having gained a verdict in his favour in his Libel Action against the _Dundee Courier_:

“I would like, Sir, to say a few words just in explanation of this
motion. It is the first opportunity that we have had of doing this
since the trial, and as other public bodies have passed votes of
congratulation to the Bishop, it is specially becoming that we
should do so, as he is Chairman of our Committee. I first made the
acquaintance of the Bishop in 1893, when I was making a little
antiquarian tour in the County Kildare with another antiquary, and
on arriving at Maynooth we ordered some dinner at the hotel there.
I was anxious to see Maynooth College, we went on there, and we
happened to see Dr. Browne, who was then President of Maynooth;
and he with true Irish hospitality at once invited us to stay to
dine, which we did, and I had a pleasant experience of his
hospitality and kindness on that occasion. And I must say that my
own experience of him since he became Bishop of Cloyne has always
been the same, that by tact and kindness and courtesy he has
gained our regard and respect. I think I might venture to say in
connection with the present controversy about the introduction of
Home Rule into the country—which has, of course, caused a great
deal of excitement—it would not be natural to expect that such a
measure would be received in silence, but surely it is possible
that the people who want to discuss this question should discuss
it on non-controversial grounds. I think, for example, it should
be discussed on financial grounds or on constitutional grounds,
and apart altogether from religious grounds. But I fear there are
too many controversial politicians, and that this religious
element in the discussion has not only dominated it, but has
become predominant, and is greatly to be regretted; and it seems
to me that this action against the _Dundee Courier_ is an
illustration of this, and that the Bishop found it necessary to
vindicate his character against unfounded charges which were
capable of being made political capital of. It seems to me that
the argument comes to this, that people raise controversial
arguments which involve the very serious charge that the lives of
the Protestants and the property of the Protestants in the country
would hardly be safe under the new Parliament. Now this is a very
serious indictment, and I wonder whether the people who make this
consider its seriousness and the injury it does to both sides. I
think it does those people who make this charge much harm—it tends
to make them censorious and uncharitable, and it naturally
embitters the people against whom this charge is made—that is,
four-fifths of the population of the whole country. I am afraid
that there are too many of these controversial politicians at
work. I have lived all my clerical life in the County Cork for
over forty years, and my own impression when I hear charges of
this kind flung broadcast about the people of Ireland is this—that
the people who make them really can’t know how happily, for
example, we get on in the province of Munster, how much kindness
there is, and how much real good feeling—genuine good feeling
prevails between Protestant and Catholic.”

“I can certainly say for myself with perfect truth that during my
long residence in this county, for a period of over forty years, I
never received anything but kindness and consideration, and during
that long period the county has been agitated very seriously. I
remember the Fenian Rising in 1867, the Church Act in 1869 and
1870, and I remember other troubles in the county, but, personally
speaking, I never received anything but kindness and
consideration. A short time after my ordination I was told by a
senior clergyman of the diocese how to act towards the people. He
said: ‘I will give you a recipe—be friendly to the people in this
county and you will find that they will be friendly to you,’ and I
certainly found them so without a single exception or
contradiction.”

The Bishop was from home when this meeting took place, but on his return he wrote me a very kind and complimentary letter from which I quote a few sentences:

“Bishop’s House,

“Queenstown.

“_April 2nd_, 1912.

“DEAR CANON COURTENAY MOORE,—Allow me to congratulate you most
sincerely on the tone and character of your speech, which has done
much to foster among us all, charity, peace and brotherhood. I
have heard all manner of men speaking of your action on that
occasion in the highest terms of praise.”

“When there lies round about us so much good to be done by our
common united forces, why should we spoil the opportunity of doing
good by senseless and generally ill-founded suspicion and
quarrels?

“Yours faithfully,

“ROBERT BROWNE.

“_Bishop of Cloyne_.”

I desire to add an extract here from a letter written to me by the late Rev. Father Horgan, P.P. of Kilworth, Co. Cork. He was a very cultivated man; he had been for eight years in the Irish College at Rome and had also made a voyage round the world. He had “read in the book of the world,” and in addition to his extensive and accurate knowledge of theology he had acquired a great knowledge of Art from his residence in Rome. About two years before his death he wrote me a very touching letter from which the following is an extract:

“I have given up all thoughts of change of place. My outlook and
my hope are homewards, and may the good God support and strengthen
us both to and through the end which awaits us to our rest.”

I fear there may be too much egotism and too little reticence in my placing such kindly and even confidential communications as these before the public, yet my motive for doing so is simply to show how much real kindly feeling and friendly intercourse exist between members of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches in Ireland, especially in those districts where the vast numerical predominance of the former Church might, as some suppose and suggest, provoke her to intolerance, which in my opinion is not the case at all. Of course I do not profess to do more than offer a general opinion founded on my own personal experience, and on my knowledge of Irish history in the past. But when I look back upon the past and think for example on the state of Ireland during the “Tithe Wars,” as described by such a writer as Lecky, and on my own recollections of Ireland in the days of the Land League, and compare with these periods the present happy and peaceful condition of the country, and ask myself what has produced such a blessed and beneficial change, is not the answer plain enough that it has been the progress of healing and remedial legislation? Well, then, if impending legislation in the direction of Home Rule is a further concession to national sentiment and likely to prove a further development of and outlet for national knowledge of what the country requires, and an application of her own energies and resources for the purpose, why should one dread and deprecate the experiment? I have lived through too many Irish crises to be afraid of another. I do not venture to speak dogmatically, still less despairingly, but I feel on the whole that this new departure will tend to good like its predecessors. I am inclined to ask, why should the Roman Catholic people of Ireland persecute Protestants, if Home Rule be granted—some will say, oh, because they will then have greatly increased power and influence in their own hands, and they will therefore be tempted to use it, and will use it in this direction. I find it hard to believe this, I am very slow to believe it, judging from my own experience of Ireland. May I not put it in this way plausibly and reasonably enough: why should not such an extension of self-government gratify the Irish National Party, and produce even better and still more kindly feeling towards their Protestant fellow countrymen than already exists? If we must make a calculus of probabilities in such an event, ought we not to take into account the mollifying influence of the possession of increased powers, just as much as the temptation to misuse them in the direction of intolerance. Besides, will it not be the policy of the leaders of the Home Rule movement, should it become an accomplished fact, to conciliate—much rather than to coerce—those who oppose the movement? As Mr. Redmond has recently said, “some repudiate Ireland, but Ireland will not repudiate them.” We may for a time in the near future have a period of some unrest, anxiety, possibly even danger, but we must hope that this will pass. Certain Irish proverbs show something of the tone of the national mind. Here are a few: are they not very instructive and descriptive?

“One must cut the gad nearest the throat.”

“The first thread is not of the piece.”

“A small share of anything is not worth much, but a small share of
sense _is_ worth much.”

“It isn’t day yet.”

“Nil lā fòs e.”

All these proverbs show that Ireland has “learned to labour and to wait:”

“Look not mournfully into the past,
It comes not back again ...
Wisely improve the present, it is thine.
Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly
heart.”

(2) A Presbyterian View, BY REV. J. B. ARMOUR, M.A.

The question of Home Rule for Ireland has been discussed from all sides now for more than a quarter of a century: and at present it holds the field. Everything from the constitutional, commercial, and religious aspect of the problem has been said in an italicised form. The history of the controversy has shown considerable change of view, at least on the part of the opponents of the measure, and the bitterness against the idea has become in many cases a mere scream, a sign that the foundation of their objections to the proposal is giving way. At the first mention of Home Rule, the majority of the constitutional lawyers entered the lists, and satisfied themselves that the measure would violate the constitution, lead to the dismemberment of the Empire, and the final separation of Ireland from the Crown. The stipendiary politician, of whom we have many, especially in the North of Ireland, said: “I thank thee, O Jew, for teaching me that word,” and rang the changes on the word “separation,” dubbing every adherent of the Liberal cause as a separatist. The saner constitutional lawyers have come to the conclusion that the idea of separation has no foundation in fact, and could not, if mooted, have the slightest hope of success. A community which has not the power of raising an Army or a Navy could hardly venture on rebellion. Ireland is largely an agricultural country, and, seeing that the farmers in a few years will be sitting under their own vine and fig tree, possessors as well as tillers of the soil, it is almost unthinkable that even five per cent. of the population would think of risking their all in an enterprise which could not be successful, and, if successful, would close against them their best markets. The Irish people are sometimes credited with a double dose of original sin and folly, but their sense of humour would save them from such a cut-throat policy. The soldiers they have sent into the British Army, taken from the lower strata of social life, have proved as loyal to the British Crown as the Scotch Highlanders. The Curragh, and other camps for soldiers in Ireland, will not be broken up when Home Rule comes. The fear of Home Rule leading to separation has receded to the background of the controversy, and is now the monopoly of obscure politicians.

I am asked to say something on the question from a Presbyterian point of view. It is a little difficult to state the number of those in favour of the measure, and of those not actively opposed thereto, especially as those who pose as exponents of Presbyterianism have set themselves, with considerable success, to destroy the right of free speech and to ban the right of private judgment as a pestilential heresy—two of the essential factors in living Protestantism. To hamstring these principles is to leave Protestantism with a name to live, though it is dead. These Anti-Home Rulers have been threatening, and are carrying out their threat, to boycott any parson who shows signs of scepticism about the infallibility of their _credo_. Boycotting is a serious offence, if practised in any form in the South and West of Ireland, but it is the eleventh Commandment of the Anti-Home Rulers among the Protestants, and is being observed with greater strictness than any of the Ten Words. Under the reign of TERRORISING PREJUDICE it is not easy to indicate the number of those, especially in the Presbyterian Church, who refuse to make Anti-Home Rule an article of a standing or falling Church. But the drastic methods used to repress free speech, and the right of private judgment on a political question, are indications that the secret disciples of Home Rule are not only a large but an increasing number. As one who has believed in Home Rule for many years, as one who, while treated with courtesy and kindliness by leading Unionists, has been thrice stoned by their noisy followers, I venture to give an _apologia pro mea vita_.

(_a_) I accept the principle of Home Rule for Ireland because it is the principle of the Presbyterian Church Government applied to secular affairs; a principle which has worked well in the Colonies where there are mixed races and religions; a principle which is a fundamental one in the United States of America; a principle which, truly democratic, has proved itself the salt of social life wherever applied, and, in the case of our Colonies, has been a link binding the Colonies with hooks of steel to the British Crown. Why or how it will lead to red ruin and the breaking up of laws in Ireland is not very clear, save to the “dryting prophets” of the dolorous breed. As a matter of fact, that principle of Protestantism was suggested to the Catholics by Protestants. The idea of Home Rule for Ireland was bred in the brain of some Fellows of T.C.D. Isaac Butt was its Cicero, and Parnell brought the idea into practical politics. Home Rule is the child of Protestant parents, and its adherents in all the branches of Protestant Churches are many. All the Unionists of the saner type admit the common sense of the principle, and they say that if Ireland were Scotland they would have nothing to say against an Irish Parliament for purely local purposes. But they insist that a true principle, if administered by Irishmen, would lead to a reign of terror and tyranny. The answer to that is this. The Conservative Government has already granted the half of the principle in the establishment of County Councils, which Lord Salisbury said would be more mischievous than Home Rule pure and simple—though in spite of his _ex-cathedra_ opinion he set them up. The Irish Conservative papers at the time said bitterly that the Councils were the half-way house to Home Rule. In existence now for years, they have worked wonderfully well without a tithe of the evil predicted to follow in their train. People argue on the question as if the Irish representatives would never take a statesmanlike view of any matter for the public good, and as if Protestantism would have no share in the deliberations of an Irish Parliament with a fourth of the representatives in Dublin Protestants, and with an upper House nominated with a view to the protection of minorities. The belief that democracy in Ireland would become a persecutor of Protestants and a robber of the commercial classes can only arise in the minds of those who hate democracy and all its works, though the democratic principle wherever tried has been the parent of much that is good in social life. It is becoming the conviction of the thinking portion of the Protestant world that the question MUST be settled by the one party or the other on lines satisfactory to Irishmen generally; and notwithstanding the whirling words uttered by the landlords and their entourage at Balmoral, it is firmly believed that Mr. Bonar Law would like to have a hand in establishing an Irish Parliament for Irish affairs.

(_b_) Home Rule would undo to a large extent the evils of the paper Union of 1800, modifying racial animosities, introducing a new spirit of patriotism and healing the sores of long standing. The means by which the Union of Ireland with England was effected were so destructive of everything moral in political life that every thinking man denounces them as infamous, and they are without a defender past or present. It is tolerably certain that 90 per cent. of the Protestants of Ireland, including a large number of the landlords who refused to be bribed, were as bitter against the destruction of the Irish Parliament as their descendants are against its restoration. Listening to the harangues against an Irish Parliament, one can only conclude that the applauding auditors regard their ancestors as fools. To have a dance on the graves of one’s ancestors may be a new amusement, but it is hardly respectful to the memory of brave men whose opinions of the hurtful effects to Ireland from the Union and the loss of a legislature have been fully justified by events. Nobody can say that the Union has been a success. For fully seventy years of the nineteenth century the government of Ireland was a legalised tyranny, the whole political power of making and administering laws for Ireland was in the hands of the landlords, who were allowed to rob and spoil at their will the Irish tenants, Protestant and Catholic. A tenant’s Protestantism did not save him from a rack rent; it often increased the rack rents. For generations the tenants of Ireland had to pay between five and ten millions beyond what was just and fair, and those millions might as well have been cast into the Irish Channel as far as bringing any benefit to Ireland was concerned. The Imperial Parliament is heavily in debt to Ireland for the spoliation of the Irish farmers and labourers which it permitted. Irishmen of all creeds, as they look back on a long spell of slavery, have no right to join in singing pæans to the Union. If changes were made in the laws bringing a modicum of justice to Irishmen, giving them a right to call their votes their own, and a right to part of the property they created, the predecessors of the Unionists of to-day have no claim to credit for the changes, as they fought with the same savageness they are showing towards Home Rule against the introduction of the ballot, and took as their motto “tenants’ rights are landlords’ wrongs.” The thanks of Irishmen are due to the Liberal Party, led by Mr. Gladstone, and backed powerfully by the Nationalist Members. Unionists of every colour are dwelling on the prosperity of Ireland, quoting statistics about the tremendous increase of sheep and swine. They forget two things, one of which is that Ireland since the Union has lost 50 per cent. of its inhabitants, but they say “What of that? We have a large increase of sheep and swine, the true index of a nation’s prosperity.” The Founder of our faith did not agree with the Unionist conception of the relative value of sheep and men. He said: “How much is a man better than a sheep,” a saying which covers an Irish Catholic as well as a Protestant Home Ruler. Men are better than sheep, Unionists notwithstanding. Then they forget that Ireland’s prosperity, whatever it is, began with Mr. Gladstone’s legislation, which the Conservatives held would ruin the country and break up the Empire. His legislation was the introduction of the democratic principle into politics, and democracy has proved itself worthy of acceptation. Home Rule is the extension of the democratic idea, and in spite of all that has been said in strident tones against the measure, its acceptance will tend to social health and wealth, and not one hundredth part of the evil its opponents associate with its passing can result therefrom. The prophecies about the evils resulting from Liberal legislation have been falsified in every instance. The Ballot Act would have upset the Throne, according to the Tories, but the Throne is on a firmer basis now than it has been since the days of the Conqueror. The disestablishment of the Irish Church was to ruin religion, but after more than forty years religion in the Episcopal Church of Ireland is healthier than ever. Home Rule will “heal the breaches of many generations.”

(_c_) Home Rule in Ireland, so far from ruining Protestantism, will give Protestantism a chance of being judged on its own merits. _Hitherto Protestantism has been handicapped by its political associations._ The system so long in vogue of compelling the Irish peasant to pay tithe for the support of an established Church where the peasant never worshipped, evoked the dislike of the majority of our countrymen for Protestantism and all its works. If that cause of active hatred was removed, the fact that Protestantism was still the religion of the majority of the landlords who demanded more than their pound of flesh from the tenants did not commend that form of religion as a gospel of love. Then the fact, so evident still, that the bureaucracy which is ruling Ireland is largely Protestant, the highest positions of dignity and emolument in connection with the State machinery being held, not by Protestants of all sects but by those belonging to a certain sect, has not been conducive to unprejudiced views of Protestantism as a religious system. The fear that the management of the State machinery will not remain in the hands of the descendants of the ascendency party is perhaps the strongest factor in opposition to Home Rule. As far as the Presbyterian Church is concerned, its members cannot possibly under Home Rule have a less share in the offices of emolument and dignity than they have had all down the years from 1800 to 1912. Protestantism will enter on a new career as a spiritual rather than a political force, and will prove its right to have its share in our country’s welfare. Persecution for conscience sake is a game played out, as the practice of persecution for religious opinions has hurt the persecutor more than the persecuted. Persecution cripples industry, and, as the world has become very practical, fears of persecution are to be largely discounted, especially as it would be rather difficult to persecute the fourth of the inhabitants. _Some_ of those who are exploiting the persecuting bogey for political ends have not much religion to persecute. The fears of a militant Catholic Duke who hates Home Rule, and who is credited with intriguing at Rome against it, ought to modify the fears of timid Protestants who urge that Home Rule must necessarily mean Rome Rule. To their credit, Irish Catholics, alone in the Catholic world, have never been known to persecute for religious beliefs. A martyr for conscience sake has never been heard of in Erin. On April 11th of this year, a letter was addressed to Mr. Redmond, signed by the leading Protestants of Dublin, in which they assert that Protestants have always been treated with courtesy by their Catholic neighbours in the south and west, and in which they repudiate the idea of persecution in the future. They send Mr. Redmond a considerable subscription for his fund as a proof that their letter is not words, but an expression of well-grounded conviction. I have no fear for true Protestantism in the future, either in Ireland or elsewhere, though political Protestantism has had its day.

(_d_) Instead of diminishing, Home Rule will increase, the commerce of Ireland. It is curious that, at all the Conventions called to denounce Home Rule, the fear of the ruin of commerce has been more prominent than the fear of the destruction of the Protestant religion. They have been reversing the great rule of life “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and these things shall be added unto you.” So obviously has the commercial side been thrust into the front rank of this controversy that a cynical friend—worthy to be a brother of the Member for Sark—has suggested that the meetings should have been opened by a hymn to commerce: “O God of Commerce help us, for the man from Waterford intends to cut down your groves.” A more fantastic idea or one more devoid of all probability never took possession of men. Democracy has always been favourable to commerce, and commercial prosperity follows in its train. To imagine that a Parliament in Dublin would heap taxes on the rich is unthinkable, as any taxes on Ulster would weigh as heavily on other parts of Ireland. The Irish people of any creed are not fond of paying taxes, and one might take it for granted that a change in the administration of Irish affairs will not necessitate increased taxation. The administration of the Government machinery in Ireland is the costliest in any country, and is bound to decrease largely as the country settles. The cost of bills promoted by Irish Corporations for needed corporate improvements is enormous, and it frightens social reformers from attempting to get things which stand in the way of public good set right. No statement was ever further from the truth than that which is made so often, that the Imperial Parliament is ready to amend every real Irish grievance. There are hundreds of necessary reforms which would contribute to the prosperity of the country. These cannot be attempted because of the cost and the difficulty of getting them discussed in the Imperial Parliament. If settled in Dublin, they could be better done at one fifth of the expense. The Commerce of Ireland stands to gain by Home Rule. An increase of commerce always leads to a spirit of tolerance.

To those of my fellow religionists who are frightened by the very term—Home Rule, I would say “Who is he that will harm you if ye are followers of that which is good?”

(3) A Nonconformist View. BY REV. W. CRAWFORD, M.A.

It must be a matter of constant surprise, to those who have been accustomed to distinguish political from religious questions, to find religion for ever obtruded into discussions of the Irish problem. Can’t men follow their religious convictions under any form of government? they will impatiently cry; why then complicate an already difficult subject by importing considerations on which some men appear always to be least reasonable? But it may as well be recognised at once that “religion” is generally at the base of the opposition to Home Rule, and that the British government of Ireland, as it is responsible for that peculiar feature of the case, must in all equity find a solution of the problem and a remedy for those evils which have embittered Irish life for centuries, and which to-day stand as the one great obstacle to England’s last act of reparation for the wrongs of the past. An alien Church has been disestablished; a tyrannical land system is at enormous cost being revolutionised; and now the traditional animosity of Protestant to Roman Catholic, manifested in the general opposition of the Churches of the Reformation in Ireland to the demand for Home Rule, and enforced by every argument which the history of centuries can afford, must be dealt with.

The errors of a dark past cannot be undone; but each successive measure of conciliation has brought increased contentment and prosperity to the country; and, sure as there is a God in heaven, the repeal of the last and greatest wrong, an Act of Union which no honest historian can defend, will be the harbinger of lasting peace. To deal at once with the Protestant attitude to Home Rule, the Churches in an overwhelming majority stand solid against it. The opposition is confined to no class, being, if anything, more bitter and unreasoning in the lower grades of society. It is impossible to give any accurate estimate of the number of Protestant Home Rulers, and the much advertised totals of 95 to 98 per cent. of Unionists are mere fictions, as there never has been a poll taken on the question; and for easily understood reasons those in favour of suspected or unfashionable causes are slow to declare their opinions or convictions. Liberalism is essentially “vulgar” in Ireland; and Nationalism is taboo in all polite society. That exclusive clique, among whom heredity, tradition, and “Church principles” reign supreme, has had a long ascendency in Ireland. In affluence amid poverty, with every advantage of education and influence over the unprivileged many, their pride has been to stand aloof from popular causes, and to decry every agitation for redress. Isolated Liberals, too few and scattered to form a community, have had to lie low, or risk their social position and business prospects. Of late years there has been some access of courage, and an increasing number in all professions and trades, except those directly dependent for support on the upper classes, have greatly ventured in taking a stand on the people’s side. Among the younger generations, the choicest spirits, true followers of Davis Emmett and Fitzgerald, have always been found on the popular side; but, on the whole, heredity prevails, tradition rules, and convention, under the guise of religion and Empire, drills the Protestant mass on the side of Unionism.

Ulster is the crux of the Home Rule problem; and Protestantism is the _raison d’étre_ of its opposition; as we are being ever reminded by Church assemblies, Orange lodges, and political orators whose interest in the welfare of so Puritan a faith is admirable indeed, and full of promise for their future. The “religion” may sometimes appear to be of a peculiar political cast, and difficult to reconcile with ordinary Christianity; but such as it is, in it a serious fact has to be reckoned with. Its genesis, as well as the present condition of Ireland, can be understood only in the light of the history of the last four centuries. The attitude of Protestantism generally does not need a separate discussion, being marked by the same characteristics (as it originated, for the most part, in the same events) as that of the North of Ireland. It is in the confiscations and plantations of the seventeenth century that the origin of political Protestantism is to be found. That nefarious plan of conquest and government was old as the Normans; but it is to the later phases of it adopted by the English rulers from James I. to Cromwell that the establishment of the Protestant races and families now in possession of the land may be traced. Recollect that the planters were English and Scotch Protestants put in possession of the lands and homes of Irish Roman Catholics, who were relegated to Connaught, and farther, or held in complete subjection by the conquering race. Their religion was proscribed, and all civil rights were denied them. No doubt the object was rather to extinguish a nation, than a creed; but the fact remains that in his paternal solicitude, “the interests of His Majesty’s _Protestant_ subjects were his greatest care, and must first be provided for” (17 & 18 Charles II.); and the “mere Irish” were sacrificed for the purpose. The “settlements” of Ireland resulted in the fact that to a very large extent the history of Ireland until to-day is involved in the land question, and in the doings of contending religious factions.

Thus favoured by the State, and supported in their armed possession of property and ascendency, the Irish Protestants developed at once the masterful qualities so natural to the British in relation to subject races, loyalty to their benefactors whose garrison they were, stern adherence to the religion which was the badge of their predominance, and a firm determination, at all cost to others, to maintain a state of affairs so favourable to their welfare here and hereafter.

To hark back thus to a distant past, seeking the origin of the events of the present, may appear unnecessarily provocative of bad feeling. It is pleasanter to dwell on the social amenities and Christian charities which have often marked the relations of Roman Catholic and Protestant neighbours, and do so more than ever to-day; but in view of the present struggle they are merely misleading accidents, and the intolerant spirit that displays itself in threats of armed resistance, or in the “Ulster” of Rudyard Kipling with its:

“The faith in which we stand,
The Laws we made and guard,
Our honour, lives and land,
Are given for reward.
To Murder done by night,
To Treason taught by day,
To folly, sloth and spite,
And we are thrust away.”

is more truly characteristic of the historical fairness and temper of that past in which we seek the origin of the problem now confronting the British people. The history of the past dominates minds on both sides of the conflict. Peasants have very long memories, and traditions wrought into every fibre of their being control their outlook on current events in a way quite inexplicable to those who enjoy a wider range of vision and are occupied with modern interests. The horrors of Scullabogue and the heroism of Saintfield are still recounted with vivid detail in the cabins of Wexford and Down; and the relative condition of the two nations in Ireland must be radically altered before the bitter memories of the past and the passions they evoke in the name of religion, will cease to frustrate all movements toward peace and progress. The mention of “two nations” will be eagerly seized by opponents as a fatal objection to the establishment of a native government. And so it would be, if the differences were ineradicable in their nature, or agreement on the principles of government impossible between men of different faith in Ireland; but the past has abundantly proved that neither supposition is true. In every century as men have been uninfluenced by the machinations of party leaders, or freed from clerical control, they have agreed to struggle for the good of their common country. Presbyterians have led “the rebels” in many a bloody fight, the liberties of Ireland were never more gloriously vindicated than in the Protestant Parliament of Grattan, and the latest struggle for legislative independence has found its earliest and most trusted leaders among the Protestant gentry. “More Irish than the Irish themselves,” there have always been found some, yielding to the glamour of Irish climate, character and life, who have forgotten the animosities of religion to combine in prayer and sacrifice for the good of their adopted country. Further, the principles on which the Home Rule demand is based are those professed by men of every creed in the free countries of the world, and in Ireland, too, when men are not blinded by prejudice or traditional fears. The two nations will be welded into one; and “Ireland a nation” will become something more than a patriotic toast, when, for the first time in history, the representatives of all creeds form its Parliament, for Ireland can as ill afford to lose the dour virtues of the Ulster-Scot as of the most dreamy Munster Celt.

The refusal to recognise Irishmen’s right to Nationality, when English, Welsh and Scots are “nations” is a curious relic of the old attitude towards(165) “England’s oldest foe.” They inhabit, at all events, one land, and it is an island. A people variously constituted, they breathe its air, cultivate its soil, speak the same language with even a brogue of their own, enjoy the usual intercourse of ordinary human beings in social, commercial, educational and political pursuits, with common interests, problems, difficulties, and aspirations (_pace_ Ulster). They have a history more ancient than that of Saxon England, and a continuous Christianity as devoutly held for seventeen centuries as in any country of Europe; they have marked characteristics, admirable or otherwise, according to taste and temper, but which the world of art, literature and religion seems to value. But because their ideals do not commend themselves to some thrifty settlers on their lands they are to be denied the status and privileges of a nation.

In any attempt to reach the truth as to the justice and expediency of granting Home Rule to Ireland, it is absolutely futile to waste time in answering the stock arguments of party platforms, special pleading to support a foregone conclusion, half-truths backed up by most remarkable incidents, “fresh in the memory” of the speaker, or invented by his heated imagination. To contradict falsehoods, debate plausible conclusions, or quote instances to the contrary is equally vain, for the distinction between _propter_ and _post hoc_ is often as inscrutable to the ordinary mind in politics as it is in medicine. We must fall back on recognized principles; and leave it to our opponents, on whom the burden lies, to show reason why these should not be applied to Ireland as to other parts of the British Empire, or why Irishmen, because mostly Catholics, are to be refused the natural rights of freemen.