LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE RIGHT OF REBELLION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—May I, as an ordinary member of the Unionist Party, state briefly the reasons why, in company with, I believe, the vast majority of the party, I welcome and endorse the declara- tion of our leader, made at Blenheim and repeated in the House of Commons P The Unionist Party stands for obedience to the laws. It has never capitulated to organized violence in Ireland or to "peaceful picketing" in England, it has never, under colour of conscientious objections, set the laws at nought by "passive resistance." Its principle has always been that the members of a State must obey the laws of the State. But the Home Rule proposals of the present Government are believed by the men of North-East Ulster, and by the majority of the people of England, to aim at destroying their State and setting up a new and different State. Whatever the provisions of the Home Rule Bill may be, it will be worked by men of the stamp of Mr. Dillon and Mr. Devlin. We know what these men are (not to mention abundant other evidence) from their behaviour during the Boer War, and from their close connexion with the most bitter anti-English parties abroad. They have never expressed regret for their disloyalty in 1900 and 1901; they have never repudiated and condemned Mr. Patrick Ford and the extreme Irish Party in America. The men of North-East Ulster, therefore, believe, and we believe with them, that they are to be torn from a country which they love and to be handed over to a faction that hates that country and them. Surely in these circum. stances 4` Ulster would fight, and Ulster would be right." The law of the British Parliament will not apply to them, for the British Parliament will have cut them adrift.
Even if the people of the United Kingdom chose deliberately to transfer North-East Ulster from its allegiance, those trans- ferred have a right to resist, though it might not be wise. But the Ulstermen believe, and we again believe with them, that the majority of the United Kingdom does not wish to cast them off. If an appeal to the voters by a Referendum were made, we are confident that the majority of the United Kingdom would reject the proposed Home Rule Bill. Hence the Ulstermen not only have a right to resist, but they believe that they can resist with success, for the vote of the British Parlia- meat is now not the expression of the will of the majority; it is only,the arrangement of a number of carefully balanced fac- tions. The Protestants of Ulster have been the English garrison in Ireland; it is proposed to hand them over to their enemies. The situation for them is just what it was for the men of Londonderry in 1689. Then, as now, the loyalists were told by those in lawful authority that they must surrender. But the officers of the traitor Lundy broke the most binding of all laws, that of military obedience, and resisted in spite of him ; the people of Londonderry refused to obey the lawful orders of their own civic magistrates. The result is that they hold a place among the heroes of our country, while the name of Lundy the traitor is a by-word.—I am, Sir, &c., firadham College, Oxford.
J. WELLS.
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