"A BIGOT AND AN ORANGEMAN."
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I enclose an extract from Borrow's Lavengro, dealing with Ulster. I thought it might interest your readers :— " Oh yes ! It is easier to apply epithets of opprobrium to people than to make yourself acquainted with their history and position. They are a remarkable body of men who during two centuries have fought a good fight in Ireland in the cause of civilization and religious truth' they are sent as colonists, few in number, into a barbarous and unhappy country, where, ever since, though sur- rounded with difficulties of every kind, they have maintained their ground ; theirs has been no easy life, nor have their lines fallen upon very pleasant places ; amidst darkness they have held up a lamp, and it would be well for IRELAND were all her children like these her adopted ones. But they are fierce and sanguinary, it is said. Ay, ay, they have not unfrequently opposed the king's sword to the savage pike. But they are bigoted and narrow- minded. Ay, ay, they do not like idolatry and will not bow the knee before a stone. But their language is frequently indecorous. Go to, my dainty one, did ye ever listen to the voice of Papist cursing. They have virtues the Irish Protestants, numerous ones, and their virtues are their own, their industry, their energy, and their undaunted resolution are their own. They have been vilified and traduced—but what would Ireland be without them ? I repeat that it would be well for her were all her sons no worse than these much calumniated children of her adoption."
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