itain herself.
England and Scotland, the most favoured lands of the Reformation, by
establishing Home Rule in Ireland, will do for Rome what no other
country in the world would do for her. They would entrust her with a
legislative machine which she could control without check, hand over to
her tender mercies a million of the best Protestants of the Empire, and
establish at the heart of the Empire a power altogether at variance with
her own ideals of Government, fraught with danger, and a good base of
operations for the conquest of England. Can this be done with impunity?
Can Great Britain divest herself of a religious responsibility in
dealing with Home Rule? Is there not a God in Heaven who will take note
of such national procedure? Are electors not responsible to Him for the
use they make of their votes? If they sow to the wind, must they not
reap the whirlwind?

In brief compass, I hope I have made it quite clear what the Religious
Difficulty in Ireland under Home Rule is. It is not a mere accident of
the situation; it does not spring from any question of temper, or of
prejudice, or of bigotry. The Religious Difficulty is created by the
essential and fundamental genius of Romanism. Her whole ideal of life
differs from the Protestant ideal. It is impossible to reconcile these
two ideals. It is impossible to unite them in any amalgam that would not
mean the destruction of both. Under Imperial Rule these ideals have
discovered a decently working _modus vivendi_. Mr. Pitt's contention
that the union with Great Britain would be an effectual barrier against
Romanism has held good. But if you remove Imperial Rule than you create
at a stroke the ascendency of Rome, and under that ascendency the
greatest injustice would be inflicted on the Protestant minority.
Questions of public situations and of efficient patronage are of very
subordinate importance indeed. Mr. Redmond demands that Irish
Protestants must be included in his Home Rule scheme, and threatens that
if they object they must be dealt with "by the strong hand," and his
Home Rule Parliament would be subservient to the Church of Rome. Does
any one suppose that a million of the most earnest Protestants in the
world are going to submit to such an arrangement? Neither Englishmen nor
Scotsmen would be willing themselves to enter under such a yoke, and why
should they ask Irishmen to do so?

It is contended, indeed, that the power of the priest in Ireland is on
the wane.