The Protestants and Catholics have been fighting again in Belfast,
killing four persons, and wounding a hundred police- men. The details are invisible under the usual mass of mis- representations, though the balance of evidence is that the Protestants began the riot ; but it is probable that the Catholics got the worst of it, for the Freeman's Journal attributes the fault to Mr. Morley, who did not put down the Orangemen sharply enough last time. Mr. Morley would hardly be charged with favouring Orangemen unless he had been strictly impar- tial; and had the Orangemen lost, he would have been accused of favouring Catholics. The truth is, the factions in Ire- land hate one another too much to be either quiet, or reasonable, or truthful, and if the hand of the Imperial Government were withdrawn, would be in a week at one another's throats. It has very nearly come to that as it is, on the mere rumour of Home-rule ; but the reality would dissolve all the bonds of society, leaving the restoration of order either to British troops or to some Vigilance Committee.
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