lfast to a Roman Catholic district, in which his boys
had no available school but that of the Christian Brothers, and his
girls none but that of the local convent. I shall never forget the
expression of that man's face or the pathos in his voice while he
pressed me to help him to obtain a transfer to a Protestant district, as
otherwise he feared his children would be lost to the faith of their
fathers. Given a Parliament in Dublin, the management of education would
be so conducted as gradually to extinguish Protestant minorities in the
border counties of Ulster and in the other provinces of Ireland. It is
here that a chief danger to Protestantism lies.

4. _Home Rule will seriously injure Ulster's material
prosperity--industrial, commercial, agricultural._ The root of the evil
will lie in the want of credit of an Irish Exchequer in the money
markets of the world. The best financial authorities agree that if
Ireland should be left to her own resources, there would be, on the
present basis of taxation, and after providing for a fair Irish
contribution towards Imperial defence, an annual deficit in the Irish
Exchequer of L3,000,000 to L4,000,000. An Irish Government in such
circumstances--consols themselves being now some L23 under par--could
not borrow money at any reasonable rate of interest. Ever; if the
British taxpayer were compelled to provide for the deficiency, either
by an annual grant or by payment of a divorce penalty of L15,000,000 to
L20,000,000, or by both, a prudent investor would fear that the annual
dole might at any moment be withdrawn should, for instance, John Bull
become irritated by the action of a Dublin Parliament, say, in declaring
enlisting in His Majesty's forces a criminal act; or that the capital
gift would soon be frittered away in the interests of agitators and
their friends. He would simply refuse to invest in Irish stock.

Now, a fundamental condition of commercial and industrial well-being is
financial confidence. If the Public Exchequer of a country lacks
confidence, it is a truism to say that consequently commercial
confidence must be gravely impaired. The magnates of Lombard Street and
Wall Street would view their Irish clients with unpleasant reserve.
Irish bankers would in turn restrict advances to their customers, and
these again would limit the credit of those with whom they transacted
business. Curtailment of industrial enterprise, the shutting down of
many manufacturing concerns,