IRISH PARTITION.
[To THE EDITOR or THE SPECTATOR."1- • SIR,—I feel grateful to you for publishing my letter about Irish matters in the last issue of the Spectator, and also for the courteous tone of your note. I trust that you will kindly publish this letter too, though I am writing it in order to say that I fear I cannot consider your note a satisfactory answer.
You admit that in any partition scheme " the Unionists of the South and West of Ireland have the appearance of being left in the air." I think, Sir, if you had written that the Unionists of Ireland in the event of partition would be left in a position which is generally supposed to be located under the earth rather than above it, it would have been more accurate. I am afraid it would be stern reality and not a case of appear- ance only. -
The fact is, Sir, if you will allow me to say so, that in my opinion your argument rests on no surer foundation than a gamble on two very uncertain things. One is that the Sinn Fein Party will never accept partition in their present frame of mind, and the other that even if they did so they would govern the South and West moderately and reasonably in order to induce Ulster to throw in her lot with the rest of Ireland. As is the case in all revolutionary parties, the tail wags the dog over here, and the driving-force of the Sinn Fein movement is, 1 am afraid, the Anarchist minority of that party, so that I think it is no use to expect sanity or reason from them. The Terrorists are the ruling force, and the moderate men are afraid to stir hand or foot against them.
Of course I hope as you do that the Government will not grant Home Rule, in the near futUre at any rate, on the ground that Ireland is evidently unfitted for self-government at present, but I very much fear that the constancy of our statesmen is not to be relied on, and I quite expect them to force some sort of partition on this country. In that case we Irish Unionists and Loyalists in the South and West will form the "vile body," and we are not looking forward to the " experiment " with pleasure.
As I said in my last letter, I have always been a Unionist, but if the worst comes to the worst, and Home Rule is forced down our throats, I think we shall indeed be in a desperate state if we are separated from Ulster.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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