Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt:...be dominant in an Irish Parliament, who would fill all the offices, and who would bring into existence a new police force of their own--a force which could soon be turned to other uses than the preservation of order. The people of Ulster, who have not yet quite forgotten the bitter lessons of the past, understand the meaning of all this only too clearly. They will, if Mr. Gladstone's designs succeed, be thrown directly under the rule of the priests and of their hereditary enemies. They will not submit to it. Consequently, the warning which Mr. Chamberlain uttered at Edinburgh last month cannot be regarded as unnecessary. 'Either, ' he said, 'you must cut out Ulster from your scheme, and then you will lose the support of all your Irish allies, or else you must include Ulster, and then--you know what you are doing then--your "union of hearts" will be the signal for civil war.' To call this plain statement of the truth an ' incitement to strife' is ridiculous. Mr. Gladstone might with greater reason be accused of that for referring to the Protestant minority as 'not wholly incapable, one would think, of some effort at self-defence.' Surely this is a sufficiently distinct intimation from the author of the Home Rule Bill that, if a section of the people are deeply aggrieved and injured by it, they may put into operation their powers of self-defence. We cannot for a moment doubt that they will act upon this hint if they are driven to it. Now, the people of this country generally do not understand that any such issue as this is involved in the acceptance of Mr. Gladstone's scheme. It is absolutely essential that they should be made to understand it, and therefore Unionist members and candidates cannot take too much pains to enter into...