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But not on material grounds alone or mainly rests 
the appeal to the six counties to give Home Rule, 
in the words of Lord Selborne, a fair trial before they 
decide upon exclusion. 
As Lord McDonnell points out, the exclusion of 
six counties of Ireland, apart from the strenuous 
opposition of the overwhelming majority in Leinster, 
Munster, and Connaught would give “a thoroughly 
unwelcome system of government,” not merely to the 
Nationalists of the excluded counties, but also to 
Unionists of the twenty-six included counties, who 
are naturally anxious that if Home Rule must come 
it should come for a united Ireland. 
Ulster Unionists cannot lightly contemplate the 
desertion of their Unionist brethren of the provinces 
of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, and of the in- 
cluded counties of Ulster, in violation of pledges in 
the solemn Covenant of mutual support. How 
bitterly that desertion would be resented may be 
judged from a protest in the frish Times from the 
Rev. T. L. F. Stack, of the County of Tyrone. 
«Of all the people in the world,” he writes, « the 
Ulster Unionist Council has scrapped the Covenant, 
and wiped the ground with Ulster’s honour.” 
If Home Rule would be bad for the excluded 
counties it must be worse for the Unionists of the 
included area. The number of Irish Unionists may 
be roughly estimated as about a million. Of those 
more than a half reside in the six counties proposed 
to be excluded. If a million Unionists almost mono- 
polising, as they claim, the wealth and intelligence 
of the country could not hold their own in a Home 
Rule Parliament, to what fate are the Unionists of 
the six counties abandoning their scattered brethren 
in the included area? Assuredly it is not a desertion 
which, remembering their pledge of mutual support, 
they can contemplate with pride. 
The six counties have so far successfully resisted