ue to their
Ulster kith and kin to-day.

The history and present condition of Ulster throw an important light on
what is currently described as the national demand of Ireland for Home
Rule. There is no national Irish demand for Home Rule, because there
never has been and there is no homogeneous Irish nation. On the
contrary, as Mr. Chamberlain long ago pointed out, Ireland to-day
consists of two nations. These two nations are so utterly distinct in
their racial characteristics, in their practical ideals, in their
religious sanctions, and in their sense of civic and national
responsibility that they cannot live harmoniously side by side unless
under the even-handed control of a just central authority, in which at
the same time they have full co-partnership. Ireland, accordingly,
cannot make a claim for self-government on the ground that she is a
political unit. She consists of two units, which owe their distinctive
existence, not to geographical boundaries, but to inherent and
ineradicable endowments of character and aims. If, then, it is claimed
that the unit of Nationalist Ireland is to be entitled to choose its
particular relation to the British Constitution, the same choice
undoubtedly belongs to the Unionist unit.

But Mr. Birrell, for example, would tell us that the Nationalist unit in
Ireland is three times as large as the Unionist unit, and that therefore
the smaller entity should submit, because, as he has cynically observed,
"minorities must suffer, for that is the badge of their tribe." But a
minority in the United Kingdom is not to be measured by mere numbers;
its place in the Constitution is to be estimated by its contribution to
public well-being, by its relation to the industries and occupations of
its members, by its association with the upbuilding of national
character, by its fidelity to law and order, and by its sympathy with
the world mission of the British Empire in the interests of civil and
religious freedom. Tried by all these tests, Ulster is entitled to
retain her full share in every privilege of the whole realm. Tried by
the same tests the claim of 3,000,000 Irish Nationalists to break up the
constitution of the United Kingdom, of whose population they constitute
perhaps one-fifteenth, is surely unthinkable.

Other writers in this volume have discussed Home Rule as it affects
various vital interests in Ireland as a whole. It remains for me briefly
to point out its special relation to the Nor