THE EXCLUSION OF ULSTER. [To THZ EDTTOR Or THE "SracrATon.")
SIR,—I am afraid that you have missed the point of my letter, which is the sanctity of the oath of the Covenant. I do not forget that "the Ulster leaders have definitely declared that they have no right to resort to civil war to prevent the Home Rule Bill being applied to the south and west of Ireland." But the Ulster leaders, with the remainder of the Covenanters, of which I am one, have by the inclusion of the word "Ireland" bound themselves by a solemn oath to sink or swim with the remainder of the Unionists of Ireland, and, as honourable and God-fearing men, must refuse exclusion from the Home Rule Bill in the event of such exclusion being offered to them. Then when they have refused this exclusion, and Home Rule is forced upon them in consequence, they will refuse to recognize the Home Rule Parliament, and will resist it by force of arms in their own province— also according to the Covenant. The wording of the oath is plain in reference to the setting up of a Home Rule
1 Parliament in Ireland, and the Covenanters cannot break their oath, even at the cost of civil war.—I am, Sir, &o.,
P.S.—I may add that many people—Ulstermen whose businesses are outside Ulster—signed the Covenant owing to the inclusion of the word "Ireland" in it, and believing in the infrangibility of the oath of their fellow Covenanters in Ulster.
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