A very striking Convention, representative of half a million adherents
of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, was held in Belfast on Thursday to protest against Home Rule and to explain the attitude of the Church on this question. Over 50,000 people attended, and the railway companies with stations in Belfast ran forty-seven special trains to bring in the delegates. The object of the meeting, which was to show that the statements circulated to the effect that the Presby- terians of Ireland were lukewarm on the question of Home Rule are false, was amply achieved, though we very much doubt whether any sane people in England ever really believed the allegation in question. The resolution sub- mitted to the eleven meetings, into which it was necessary for physical reasons to divide the gathering, contained the follow- ing clause :- " Under Home Rule as foreshadowed the Parliament and the Executive alike are certain to be controlled by a majority subject to the direction of the authors of the No Teeters and Motu Proptio . decrees, against whose domination all safeguards designed for the protection of the Protestant minority, embracing almost one-third of the total population of Ireland, would bo wholly valueless."
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