[ 4 |]
tained that the safeguards in the Act and the ultimate
authority of the Imperial Parliament afforded Ulster
absolute security.
Hardly less deplorable was his assumption that the
Unionists of Ulster form no part of the Irish nation ;
no one would resent the suggestion more indignantly
than Sir Edward Carson, who has over and over
again claimed the name of Irishmen for himself
and his followers. Lord Charles Beresford as a
strenuous Unionist, has been in the thick of the fight
against Home Rule. But even Lord Charles has
declared in a letter to the Zimes that “all Irishmen
are proud of being Irishmen, all are proud of the land
of their birth; no one really wishes to see Ireland
divided.” It must never be forgotten that if there
is a division in Ireland to-day it is a division of
British manufacture. The Orange faction was
cherished and encouraged as “ England’s garrison
in Ireland.” In Grattan’s day all Irishmen, North,
South, East and West were united in the struggle
for Irish self-government, and of all the Home Rulers
of that day the men of Ulster were the most vehe-
ment.
When the Premier now regrets that the opposition
of a majority in four counties of Ulster blocks the
way of Home Rule, he must not forget that such
opposition was stimulated, and to a large extent
created by his colleagues, Mr. Bonar Law and Sir
Edward Carson, and will inevitably cool down when
that stimulus is withdrawn.
The instant appeal of the Irish Party from the zon
possums of the Premier to the over seas dominions,
and to the American Republic seems to have
suddenly startled the English people and the Govern-
ment into a realisation of their position before the
tribunal of the liberty-loving nations. For their
treatment of Ireland in the past and at the present
they are absolutely without defence. The most