DR. HORTON AND MR. SWIFT MACNEILL ON HOME RULE.
[TO THE EDITOR 0/f TH1 "Bractaroa."] Sin,—There is no need, I think, to question the sincerity of Dr. Horton's recent pronouncement on Home Rule, though it is certainly strange that he fails to apply "the principles of self-government in which he has been reared" to the Unionist portion of Ulster. Ignorance of Irish conditions probably explains the curiously illogical position which he has taken up.
In this faction-ridden island, divided as it is between two nations, one of which taboos God Save the Sing as a " party tune," while the other resents the cry of God Save Ireland as a "party expression," things are seldom what they seem. The Irishmen who passionately abhor and dread the prospect of Home Rule, and are prepared to resist it to the last extremity, vastly outnumber those who have any earnest desire for it. The great majority of Nationalist electors go to the poll in support of Mr. Redmond's nominees mainly as a matter of habit, and because their Protestant neighbours are, broadly speaking, on the other side. The small percentage who really want Home Rule consist partly of Sinn Fein and other enthusiasts inspired by a traditional hatred of England, partly of those who hope to secure some of the offices which an Irish Parliament would create, partly of men who expect to obtain land on their own terms under the new regime. The demand for Home Rule is really a survival from the days when Ireland suffered under genuine grievances of which there seemed little likelihood that any redress would be afforded by the Imperial Parliament—a state of things which no longer exists. This being so, surely none but a doctrinaire, deter- mined to view all things in the light of his favourite theory instead of trying to see them as they really are, would refuse to weigh votes in Ireland and content himself with merely counting them. Fiat justitia, ruat caelum is a fine maxim, but before acting on it at the cost of civil war, red ruin, and the breaking up of laws let us be quite sure that it is indeed justice that we propose to enforce.
Mr. Swift MacNeill's comments (in the Times of Fob. 16th) on Dr. Horton's letter seem to be rather beside the mark. It is superfluous to prove, for no one denies, that Irish Catholics, when left to follow their own impulses, are as tolerant, good-humoured, and agreeable people as any one need wish to live among. It is also true that an Irish Protestant Unionist who takes no very prominent part in polities, and is so fortunate as not to incur the displeasure of the United Irish or any other League which enforces its decrees by boycotting and intimidation, has, generally speaking, nothing to fear from his Catholic fellow countrymen. Not again, is there any lank of instances to
show that an Irish Protestant who, in Mr. Swift MacNeill's phrase, "throws himself on the Catholic people " by actively espousing the cause of Homo Rule—even without advertising his zeal for Nationalism by cheering the announcement in the House of Commons of a British defeat and the capture of a wounded English general—may find a safe seat in a Catholic constituency. But it is not every Irishman, either Catholic or Protestant, who cares to court the good will of his Nationalist compatriots on those terms ; and those who do not may perhaps be pardoned if they fail to find Mr. Swift MacNeill's assurances as to the future which awaits them under Home Rule very reassuring.—I am, Sir, &a., H. C. Isom/. Ireland,
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