NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE arrivalin London of the Northern Irish Cabinet proves that the negotiations of Sinn Fein have at last reached the inevitable crux—the Ulster question. Unless the informa- tion of the best-informed writers in the newspapers is all astray, an attempt is being made to compel Ulster to give away her rights by a kind of peaceful picketing. Great Britain, it is said, will " never coerce Ulster." The Sinn Feiners, it is said with equal emphasis, will "never coerce Ulster." Still the peaceful picketing goes on, and the pickets increase in numbers and continually refine upon their powers of persuasion. When the ordinary Unionist politician observes peaceful picketing in industrial disputes he denounces it from the bottom of his heart and deplores that such an application of force in the guise of persuasion should be allowed to exist within the boundaries of the law. But a great many ordinary Unionists are now making use of a simikir contradiction in terms.
