ndustriously. If Home Rule
should come it will do no good, because it is not the right brand.
John Bull has spoilt it all, as he spoils everything. Home Rule would
have done all they promised, but this is not the Home Rule they meant!
They took it at first as a small instalment of what they would
afterwards kick out of the Saxon, but those outrageous Unionists have
shaved it down to almost nothing. It is not worth having, and the only
thing to do, say some Newport politicians, is for the Irish
Nationalist party to rise in a body an' lave the House, an' not put a
fut back into it till they get what they want. I wish my Newport
friends could make their counsel prevail.

The latest phase of feeling, then, is an affected indignation at this
supreme treachery of the English people. Over and over again I have
quoted the opinions of people who said Mr. Gladstone meant to hoax
Ireland again. This was when all seemed to be going quite smoothly.
The Government concessions and the moderate use of the closure have
convinced the doubters that they were right, and they breathe battle
and slaughter. Irishmen like fighting debates, decided measures,
tremendously hard hitting. As a people they do not believe in
constitutional agitation. They would prefer sudden revolutions,
cannons roaring, blood and thunder. They openly avow their preference,
and say that this would have been their method, but that England has
elaborately disarmed the country, which declaration clashes with the
popular opinion, often exultantly expressed, that Ireland is full of
arms. The truth is with the revolutionaries, who would certainly
prefer battle but for its well-known danger. If Ireland could be freed
by moonlighters firing at long ranges from behind stone walls, with an
inaccessible retreat within easy reach, the English yoke would have
but a short shrift.

A frantic Newporter said:--"We never got anything by love, but always
by fear, and compulsion should be our motto. I've no patience wid thim
that'll stand hat in hand, or be going down on their knees to England
for every bit an' sup. John Mitchel an' James Stephens was the only
men of modern times who properly understood how to manage the English.
Of coorse, Parnell did something to advance the cause, an' 'tis thrue
that he had no revolution nor insurrection of the old sort. But the
Land League was arranged to include all the secret associations and to
make use of thim all. Ye had Whiteboys, an' Fenian