point to the fact that of a large
number of workpeople only a small proportion of Catholics are
employed. This is the trick of Nationalists when speaking of the
intolerance of Belfast. The officials of that city, and indeed, of
every city in Ireland, are mostly Protestants, not because of this,
but because they are better men. The Belfast merchants and the Belfast
Corporation have a keen eye to the main chance, as is abundantly
proved by their success, and in business matters they will have the
best men, whether Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Turks, or Infidels.
Whatever the cause, it is certain that Protestantism turns out a far
larger proportion of able men, and in Ulster, at any rate, you rarely
meet a Catholic who is worth his salt. The Catholics of Ulster lack,
not toleration, but brains, industry, and business capacity. Anyone
who compares the harbours of Cork and Galway with Belfast will at once
appreciate the situation. Wherefore let not the Keltic Irish waste
their time in clamouring for the redress of non-existent grievances,
but buckle to and make their own prosperity. The destinies of nations,
like those of individuals, are in their own hands. Honest work is
never wasted work. Selah.

Athenry, May 27th.

No. 28.--COULD WE RECONQUER IRELAND?

The country people call this place "the back of God-speed," "the back
of the world," and "the divil's own hunting ground," but why they do
it nobody seems to know. The village is on the road to nowhere, and I
dropped on it, as it were, accidentally, during a long drive to the
remotest end of Galway Bay. Yet even here I found civilised people who
regard the proposed College Green Parliament with undisguised
aversion. Not the inhabitants, but Irish tourists, bent on exploring
the wildest and remotest nooks of their native land, among them a
Dublin barrister, whose critical analysis of the powers proposed to be
entrusted to the unscrupulous and self-seeking promoters of the Land
League may prove useful and interesting to non-legal English readers.
A Galway gentleman having during the drive pointed out a large number
of desolate mansions rapidly falling into ruin, the conversation
turned on the universal subject, and my legal friend embarked on a
dissertation on the iniquity of the Gladstone land laws, which have
had the effect of ruining a large number of the country gentry of
Ireland, driving them from their native shores, impoverishing the
landlords without an