HOME-RULE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stn,—When, some weeks ago, you inserted a letter in which I urged that the effect of Home-rule would be to unite all parties in Ireland in a struggle for total separation from England, neither you nor I supposed that Irish Unionists would arrive at this conclusion for some considerable time. But events move quickly, and opinions take root and ripen quickly in these days, and many, to whom the idea was strange a few weeks ago, have been driven, by the study of this second Home-rule Bill, further and faster than they would have dreamed it possible.
The General Synod of the Church of Ireland held a special meeting to-day. The only special meeting ever held before was on the introduction of the first Home-rule Bill. A com- parison of the resolutions and speeches on these occasions would be instructive ; but I content myself with asking your attention to the resolution moved to-day by the Archbishop of Dublin, and seconded by Dr. Trail, declaring that "a measure of total separation would be preferable to the igno- minious terms of apparent independence and actual political vassalage under this Bill."
This resolution was drawn up deliberately by the Standing Council of the Synod, it was published beforehand in the newspapers, it was introduced by the Archbishop of Dublin, and passed unanimously. It was passed, mark you, not in an assembly of Ulstermen, strong in their sense of numbers and self-confidence, but in an assembly drawn from every part of Ireland, containing men who had travelled from remote and secluded districts, where they live far from the support of numbers, and isolated among a population alien in creed and in politics. Even these men, who have most cause to dread Home-rule and most reason to cling to England, deliberately affirm that total separation from England would be better than the state of things that would exist under the Home- rule Bill of 1893.-1 am, Sir, &c., Sherlockstown, Naas, March 14th. W. SHERLOCK.
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