If such a Parliament is set up, he anticipates that
there will be a wholesale exodus of Irish Protestants—representatives of that free-bred minority of Ireland who have done splendid service in every department of British life—to the United States, and he reminds us of Henry Sidgwick's saying that if England ever deserted the minority in Ireland be would, for the first time, have reason to be ashamed of his country. The tragedy of the situation, be further points out, is that for the last ten years Ireland has been settling down to a better destiny :—
" Men of good will, Roman and Protestant alike, have been striving (studiously apart from politics) to make her happy and self-reliant It seems inconceivable that so violent a change should be forced on loyal citizens in Ireland, when half the electorate of Great Britain is against it, when Ireland is at last on the way to solve her problems in a peaceful way, and simply because the balance of power happens, for the moment, is be in the hands of the politicians who have been the bane of the country. In ten years' time Ireland would be too contented for the agitator. Will the English Liberal not realise what he is doing before it is too late ?"
We trust that means may be taken to give this letter the widest publicity amongst the Free Churchmen of England, Scotland, and Wales as an antidote to the plausible senti- mentality of the " Manifesto of Ulster Protestants " issued by Lord Pirrie and other Ulster Home-rulers in December.
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