On Wednesday, Lord Salisbury made another speech, to the Ormskirk
Habitation of the Primrose League. The passage of chief importance was that in which he drew attention to the necessity for maintaining the strength of the Navy. We must be prepared to pay a heavy insurance in order to provide against the surprises which science has in store for us. No sacrifice we could be called on to face would be anything approaching the sufferings all classes must under- go if an enemy for forty-eight hours were master of the Irish Channel. Napoleon used to say that if he could take hold of Antwerp it would be like a pistol presented to the mouth of the Thames. "We do not wish pistols presented to the mouths of the Clyde, the Mersey, and the Avon." Yet if the Home-rule Bill passes, another hostile coast will be created opposite our own. This was most wise and states- manlike, as was also Lord Salisbury's insistence on the importance of the Ulster question—with a true statesman's instinct he sees that this is the cardinal fact of the situation —but we must protest against the recklessness of the phrase in which Lord Salisbury spoke of the "inferior and bitterly hostile population" of the South of Ireland. That is heady language which does no good, and causes infinite anger among Irishmen. No doubt Unionist speakers have plenty of provo- cation to use strong language—the Nationalists speak of the English as not merely inferior, but as the authors of all infamy—but they should resist the temptation to bandy vituperative epithets. It is a bad game at best, and one at which the Celt is sure to beat the Saxon.
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