Two further receptions of the Irish Patriotic Union have taken
place,—one at Hull yesterday week, and one at Sheffield on Wednesday last. Lord Claud Hamilton, M.P., who presided at the latter meeting, predicted that Home-rule in Ireland would mean,—(1), the disbanding of the police, and the enrolling of a new police entirely Nationalist; (2), taxation thrown entirely upon property, and especially on land, so that the grazing lands would have to be ploughed up and large estates would cease to exist; and (3), filling all the offices with Nationalists. Lord Claud also maintained that, if only they had the liberty to speak their minds, half the population of Ireland were at bottom loyal to the connection with England ; but certainly, if this be true, the Irish must be not only the most secretive people in the world, but the most successful actors among the peoples. Would not loyal Irishmen serve their purpose better by exaggerating less to the world at large, and even to themselves, those aspects of the case which make for their side of the ques- tion? Major Sannderson insisted on facts far more eloquent when he recited two quite recent cases, in which an ear had been cut off one man for paying his rent, and off another man for serving one of the Queen's writs.
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