of the bonds which draw
society together. There is nothing in the antecedents of the Home Rule
Party to make one suppose that it contains the materials of a good and
impartial government.

Home Rule politicians are talkative and pertinacious. As members of
Parliament they are of course listened to, while Unionists outside
Ulster make little noise; it is, therefore, constantly said that they
acquiesce in the inevitable change. Unrepresented men cannot easily make
themselves heard, but they have done what they could. An enormous
meeting has been held in Dublin, and the building, which contains some
7000, was filled in a quarter of an hour. There has since been a large
gathering of young men who wish to remain full citizens of the Empire in
which they were born, and others are to follow. In rural districts it is
almost impossible to collect people in winter. Days are short and
distances are long. Unionist farmers cannot forget the outrages that
prevailed some years ago, and are not yet unknown. In the native land of
boycotting and cattle-driving it is not surprising that they do not wish
to be conspicuous. The difficulty extends to the towns, in many of which
it would be almost impossible to hire a room for Unionist purposes.
Hotel keepers object to risking their business and their windows, for a
mob is easily excited to riot on patriotic grounds. Shopkeepers also
have to be cautious in a country which has been wittily described as a
land of liberty where no one can do as he likes, but where every one
must do exactly what everybody else likes. In the summer people can meet
in the open air, and there will, no doubt, be abundant protests from
Southern Unionists. There will then be something definite to talk about.

It is often said that the County Councils have done well, and that
therefore there is no danger in an Irish Parliament, but the two things
are different in kind. County or District Councils, or Boards of
Guardians, are constituted by Acts of the Imperial Parliament to
administer Acts of the same, and are subject to constant supervision by
the Local Government Board, and to the peremptory action of the King's
Bench. A Parliament is by nature supreme within its sphere of action,
and its constant effort would be to enlarge that field. The men who aim
at independence would have the easy part to play, for no one in or out
of Ulster, former Unionist or confirmed Nationalist, would have any
interest in opposing them. In