Northerns and
Southerns would swop countries, Ireland must develop into one of the
most prosperous countries in the world. The Ulster men are
tremendously handicapped as against the Munster folks, but--they are
workers. Some say that if they were here the climate would enervate
them, but I do not find that my experience countenances this
supposition. Fifty years ago all the leading merchants and tradesmen
of Cork were Catholics. It is not so now. What does that prove? I
withhold my own opinion.

"The Southerners are better fixed than the Ulstermen, but they are
idle, and--this is very important--extremely sentimental."

An avowed Nationalist, one Sullivan, completely bore out this last
statement. "We want to manage our own business, and be ruled by
Irishmen. You say in England that we shall be poor, and so we may, but
that is no argument at all. It might influence a nation of
shopkeepers, but it has no weight with Irishmen, who have a proper and
creditable wish to make their country one of the nations of the world.
The very servant girls feel this, and the poorest peasant woman now
having what she calls a 'tay brakefast' is willing to go back to
porridge if the country was once rid of the English. Never you mind
what will happen to us. Cut us adrift, and that will be all we ask. If
we need help we can affiliate with America or even France. The first
is half our own people, the second understands the Irish nation, which
fought for centuries in the French armies, and, under Marshal Saxe, an
Irishman, routed the English at Fontenoy." This gentleman was civil
and moderate in tone, but he did not promise to walk down the ages
arm-in-arm with England, attesting eternal amity by exchanging smokes
and drinks. "We'll be very glad to see the English as tourists," he
said. "And they will have to behave themselves, too," he added,
reflectively.

A large trader of Patrick Street has most serious misgivings as to the
effect of the bill. He said:--

"I had just been over to England to make purchases. Arriving here, I
found the bill just out. I read it, and at once cancelled half my
orders. We are reducing stock. What Home Rule would do for us I cannot
contemplate. The mere threat amounts to partial paralysis. What the
Cork people want with Home Rule is beyond me. They have everything in
their own hands. The city elections of all kinds are governed by the
rural voters of five miles round. Wealth and commercial capital are
comple