The excitement caused in Belfast by the second reading of
the Home-rule Bill produced a considerable amount of rioting, —sufficient to make it necessary to employ the soldiers. From the accounts sent by Mr. Morley, who is in Ireland, and read by Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons on Monday and Tuesday, it appears that attacks were made on Catholics who lighted bonfires to celebrate the second reading, and that the boys in the Queen's Island—the shipbuilding yards—drove -out a certain number of Catholic workmen and prevented them from working. There were several baton-charges by the police, in order to disperse riotous crowds, and on one occa- sion the soldiers had to fix bayonets. It is also stated that .certain Scotch Protestant workmen known to be Home-rulers were attacked,—a symptom of the very bitter feeling enter- tained in Ulster against the Scotch for having deserted "men of their own race and religion." A marked feature of the riots has been the tremendous exertions of the Unionist organisations to stamp out disorder. Not only the muni- oipal authorities and the Magistrates, but the employers, are striving everywhere to keep the people quiet. Mr. Wolff, of the great shipbuilding firm, for example, went so far as to prevent the men coming to work before breakfast, and rated them soundly in a speech such as few masters now care to address to their "hands." If in spite of these exertions the town experienced three days' rioting, what will be the con- dition of affairs when the masters, Magistrates, and municipal officers are with, not against, the mob ?
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