will bare to be decided in the year that is
now opening? First of all, Sir, I heartily agree with you in your view that the ideal solution is the simple one—the maintenance of the Union intact and unaltered. After all, hae not William Pitt's great Ant been a huge success P Has not Ireland prospered under its terms beyond compare ? Why, therefore, tamper with this Act ? Is England as effete that it cannot produce men strong enough to enforce this policy, and to allow us all in Ireland to enjoy the great liberties we now possess and live up to the ideals which spring from them P All this talk of Federalism seems to me to he beside the mark. Having agreed so far with the Spectator. may I now be allowed to differ from its view P "Anything to avoid eivil war." Sir, Is it not possible that this argument may be carded too far, and that the cost of it is a price too high to pay P The horrors of civil war can hardly be exaggerated —the menace to the body politic whir* it entails, the bitterness which it leaves as an aftermath behind it—but would they be greater than an ineffectual "settlement" by means of a compromise over Ulster P What would then be the position of those outside of Ulster who through evil report and good report have stood by England and the Empire P Are these men to be thrown callously to the winds P Are we to be left under a constant nightmare and under the blighting shadow of a Tammany regime in Dublin? I contend, Sir, there are worse things even than civil war, bad and dread- ful as that is. This egregious Government by ite policy of drift, of the" open door" and the " door ajar" (how I wish somebody would take that door of its hinges !) is bringing disaster upon Ireland and the Empire; it has set brother against brother, class against class, and no leader of tho Unionist Party should do aught to help it in its difficulties. The policy of Unionism is to cling to the Union and nothing but the Union, and during 1914 to do nothing but strenuously pursue the same; and may it be that when that year closes a happy and prosperous Ireland may be found, still a full partner in the United Kingdom and enjoying all the fruits of that blessed Union.—I am, Sir, lee., [Has our correspondent thought of the position of isolated Protestants in the South during a period of siva war in the North P—En. Spectator. .1
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