Ulster as it is; or, twenty-eight years' experience as an Irish Editor

Chapter I

1882—1883 State of Ireland at the Beginning of 1882 — A Contrast between Belfast and Dublin — The Second Land Act — Attack on Mr. A. M. Porter, the Irish Solicitor-General — Violent Attacks on Mr. Forster — Dr. Drennan's Verses — A Pleasant Little Comedy in the House of Commons — Resignation of Lord Cowper and Mr. Forster — The Phœnix Park Assassinations — Their Effect in the North of Ireland — Mr. Trevelyan as the Irish Chief Secretary — Attacks on the New Irish Government — A Reign of Terror — The Address of the Irish General Assembly to Lord Spencer — Mr. Trevelyan's Visit to Belfast — A Lady Mayoress's Sketch of his Character — A Dark Autumn — A Bloody Christmas ... .,, ... ... ... I

Chapter II

1883—1884 Mr. Gladstone and the Ulster Liberal Association — Execution of Invincibles — The Monaghan Election — The Tenants on the Parnell Estate in Armagh — The Nationalist Invasion of Ulster — The Session of 1883 — Nationalist Demonstrations at Draperstown — Sir Stafford Northcote's visit to Ulster — The Electric Railway to Bushmills and the Giant's Causeway — The Rival Demonstrations at Roslea — Lord Rossmore's Suspension — Mr. Gladstone's Brave Words — Changes in the Irish Law Offices and their Consequences . . CONTENTS VI TAOE

Chapter III

1884—1885 A New Reform Bill — Mr. Gladstone's Pledge in Introducing the Measure and on the Second Reading — His Repeated and Emphatic Unionist Declarations — "The ci vilised world " — Condemnation of the Government by its Own Supporters — The Last Meeting of Catholic and Protestant Liberals in Belfast as a United Party — Lord Spencer's Visit to Belfast — Embarrassment — Defeat of the Franchise Bill in the House of Lords — Mr. Gladstone's Strong Declarations on the Duty of Protecting the Irish Minority — Meeting of Parliament in the Autumn — The Redistribution Bill — Another County Down election — An Interesting Question — A Visitor to Belfast — "Buy a revolver" ... ... ... ... 52

Chapter IV

1885 The Private Opening of the Ulster Reform Club — "We forgot all about Ulster" — Lord Hartington's Invitation to Ulster — Lord Dutferin at Belfast before his Departure as Governor-General of India — Lord Hartington's Visit to Belfast Postponed — Defeat of the Government — Two Ulster Elections — Lord Spencer's Departure from the Lord Lieutenancy — Conduct of Certain Conservatives to Lord Spencer — The Banquet at the Reform Club — Lord Carnarvon as Lord Lieutenant — His Reception in Belfast — The Approach of the General Election — Mr. Gladstone's Address to the Electors of Midlothian — Conduct of the Conservative Party ... ... ... 81

Chapter V

1885—1886 Obliged to be More or Less Personal — Effect of an Article — A Letter from Lord Spencer — One also from Lord Hartington— His Visit to Belfast — Formal Opening of the Ulster Reform Club — Strong Declarations against Home Rule by the late Irish Liberal Offici-ls — The General Election and the Ulster Liberal Defeats — Mr. Gladstone still an Uncompromising Supporter of the Union — The Journalistic "Feelers" for Home Rule — A Letter and a Prophecy from Belfast — Mr. Gladstone's Reply — Alarming Rumours — Lord Hartington's Reassuring Letter — His Attitude — Meeting of Parliament — Defeat of the Government ... ... ... ... ... CONTENTS VII i-. -..-

Chapter VI

1886 The Home Rule Ministry — Lord O'Hagan on Mr. Morley— Mr. Gladstone's Address — Liberal Convention in Belfast — Lord Randolph Churchill's Visit — The Home Rule Bill Coupled with the Land Bill — Resignation of Mr. Trevelyan and Mr. Chamberlain — Mr. Bright's Opinion as given to the Belfast Deputation — Excitement on the Introduction of the Home Rule Bill — Objections to the Bill on the part of the Minority — " Sixty miles of sea" — The Supplementary Land Bill — Interviews with Lord Spencer, Lord Hartington, and Mr., afterwards Sir, George Trevelyan ... 118

Chapter VII

1886 Mr. Gladstone's Motion for the Second Reading of the Home Rule Bill — An Interview with Mr. Chamberlain — His Decisive Opinions — Preparations for Resistance in Ulster — Lord Wolseley — Fall in the Ulster Stocks — The Defeat of the Bill— How the News was Received in Ulster — Belfast Riots — Language Ascribed to Mr. Morley by the Nationalist Press — A Dinner — The Belfast Merchants and Manufacturers nearly all against Home Rule — The Irish Chief Secretary's Statements— Another Protest of the Irish General Assembly against Home Rule — A Threatened Struggle between the Irish Races Averted by the Results of the General Election and the Formation of a New Government ... 141

Chapter VIII

1886—1887 Mr. Gladstone's Electoral Miscalculations — Ulster Liberal Unionist Discontent — Mr. T. W. Russell — Formation of the New Unionist Government — Mr. Parnell's Land Bill — The Ashbourne Act — The Plan of Campaign — Boycotting — A Liberal Unionist Conference and Banquet in London — Private Conference with Lord Hartington — Lord Randolph Churchill's Resignation and its Consequences — Mr. Balfour as Irish Chief Secretary ... CONTENTS VIII PAGE

Chapter IX

1887—1888 A Stormy Session— The New Irish Chief Secretary's Position— Sir George Trevelyan and the Vacancy in North Antrim— The Beginning of Mr. Balfour's Struggle against Disorder and Lawlessness in Ireland— The Irish Land Act of 1887— Interviews with Lord Spencer — " A miserable minority " — The Lord Spencer at the Time of the Act of Union— Mr. Morley— Lord Hartington— Mr. Chamberlain— Interview with Mr. Gladstone — The Irish Land Bill of 1887— An English Home Rule Deputation— The Struggle against the Forces of Lawlessness .. .. ,., ■■■ -•• 173

Chapter X

1887—1888 Mr. Chamberlain's Visit to Ulster — An Enthusiastic Reception — The Inequalities in the Irish Representation — Mr. Chamberlain's Two Speeches in the Ulster Hall of Belfast — Mr. Jesse Collings — Sir Wm. Thomson— Mr. Chamberlain at Coleraine — "This is a more excellent way" — Mr. Gladstone's Reply — The Contrast between Mr. Chamberlain in Belfast and Mr. Gladstone at Nottingham — A Meeting with Closed Doors of Protestant Home Rulers — Home Rule Political Tourists in Ireland — Mr. Balfour's Continued Struggle against Lawlessness and Crime ... ... ... ... 196

Chapter XI

1888—1889 Not an Irish Session — The Amendments of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre — Mr. Gladstone's Demand for Dissolution — Consistency — Lord Hartington's Second Visit to Belfast — A Remarkable Statement — Effect of the Visits of Liberal Unionist Statesmen to Ulster — Mr. Gladstone's Letter on Lord Hartington's Visit — " You are another " — Mr. Gladstone's Birmingham Speeches — Ulster Protestant ' ' Nonconformists " Declared by Mr. Gladstone to be only a Handful — A Sudden Change of Feeling — Mr. Gladstone and the Irish " Nonconformist Clergy " — His change of Attitude on Irish Land Purchase — The Renewal of the Ashbourne Act — Mr. Gladstone and Lord Dufferin in Naples — Lord Dufferin's Speech in Calcutta on St. Andrew's Day ... ... CONTENTS IX PAGE

Chapter XII

1889—1890 Session of 1S89 — Mr. Morley's Amendment — His Quotation of an Ulster Article — Attacks on Mr. Balfour — The Light Railways — Retirement of Lord Londonderry from the Irish Lord Lieutenancy — Another Banquet to Lord Dufferin in Belfast — Who is an Irishman? — Mr. Balfour and an Irish Catholic University — Indignation and Threats of the Orangemen — " Mr. Balfour's chop " — Golf in Ireland — Steady Success of the Cause of Law and Order under Mr. Balfour's Chief Secretaryship ... ... 239

Chapter XIII

1890—1892 The Judicial Commission — Professor Tyndall — Effect of the Report of the Judicial Commission — Mr. Balfour's Land Purchase Bill — Death of Sir E. P. Cowan — The Land League and New Tipperary — Partial Failure of the Potato Crop — An Autflmn Visit to Donegal — The Messrs. Musgrave — Mr. Balfour and his Sister in Donegal — The Quarrel among the Nationalists — Dr. Parker and the Catholic Bill — Sir Henry James in Belfast — Mr. Parnell in Belfast — Two Vacant Seats in Ulster — A Marriage and a Death — Two Great and Memorable Changes 251

Chapter XIV

1892 Mr. Balfour's Visit to Belfast Postponed — A Great Disappointment — A Local Government Bill for Ireland — Mr. Sexton's Amendment — Diminution of the Ministerial Majority — Sir William Harcourt Exultant — The Irish Local Government Bill — Unfairness of the Nationalists — Treatment of Belfast— Liberal Unionist Banquet to Mr. Chamberlain — Belfast created a City and its Mayor a Lord Mayor — Recent Returns showing the Prosperity of Belfast— Unionist Ulster Preparing for the Worst 275 VOL. II. b CONTENTS

Chapter XV

1892 PAGE The Origin of the Ulster Convention — An Important, Gathering in Downshire House — Publication of the Proceedings — Indignation of the Nationalists — Large Representative Meeting in Belfast — "Better be governed by Russia" — Completion of the Plan of Organisation — Lord Salisbury's Speech on Ulster — The Eve of the Convention — The Great Day — That Frightful Silence — Hypothetical Resistance — The Demonstrations in the Botanic Gardens — The Convention League Founded — Mr. Gladstone and the Appeal of the Irish Non-Episcopal Clergy — The Reply to the Appeal by the Rev. Dr. J. Guinness Rogers — Sir William Harcourt on the Convention — The General Election and its Results — Defeat of the Gladstonian Candidates in Ulster 287

Chapter XVI

1892—1893 The Election Petitions in North and South Meath — Their Effect in Ulster — The Evicted Tenants Commission — The Ulster Farmers — Convention League Conferences — Great Demonstration of Working . Men in Belfast — The Beginning of the Session — Enormous List of Measures — The Home Rule Bill — Thought in Ulster to be worse than the former Bill — "A small minority" — The Commercial Deputations from Belfast — The Interview with Mr. Gladstone — The Reply to Mr. Gladstone — Comparison between the Increase of the Populations of Glasgow and Belfast — Disappointment in Ulster at the Postponement of Lord Salisbury's Visit — Mr. Balfour in Belfast — Great Demonstrations — "Ulster can at all events fight" — The Coercion of Ulster Recommended by the Irish Nationalists and the British Home Rule Press ... ...311

Chapter XVII

1893—1894 The Debate on the Second Reading of the Home Rule Bill — Mr. Davitt's Speech— Contributions to the Revenue by Dublin and Belfast — The Albert Hall Demonstration — The Monday at Hatfield CONTENTS xi PAGE — Disturbances in Belfast — Exaggerated Statements — Home Rule Bill in Committee — Lord Salisbury's Visit to Belfast — The Ulster Settlements and Lord Salisbury's Ancestors' — The Union Jack in Den-y— The Ninth Clause of the Home Rule Bill— The Third Reading — The Rejection by the House of Lords — How the News was Received in Ulster — The Duke of Devofi shire's Last Visit to Belfast — Mr. Gladstone's Resignation and Retirement ... ... 335 Conclusion 368 Index ... ... ... ... ... ...

Chapter I

1882—1883 State of Ireland at the Beginning of 1882 — -A Contrast between Belfast and Dublin — The Second Land Act— Attack on Mr. A. M. Porter, the Irish Solicitor-General — Violent Attacks on Mr. Forster — Dr. Drennan's Verses — A Pleasant Little Comedy in the House of Commons — Resignation of Lord Cowper and Mr. Forster — The Phœnix Park Assassinations — Their Effect in the North of Ireland — Mr. Trevelyan as the Irish Chief Secretary — Attacks on the New Irish Government — A Reign of Terror — The Address of the Irish General Assembly to Lord Spencer — Mr. Trevelyan's Visit to* Belfast. — A Mayoress's Sketch of his Character — A Dark Autumn — A Bloody Christmas. At the beginning of the year 1882 a strange contrast was afforded in the proceedings of the two civic Corporations of Dublin and Belfast.

On the last day of the old year a poor woman had been shot in the presence of her aged mother at Mullingar. In the South and West of Ireland outrages were general. The strike against the payment of rents threatened to become almost universal. Farmers who did not obey the prohibitory mandates of the merciless Land League, VOL. II B I which, on being soon afterwards suppressed, continued under another name, were subjected to the most lawless forms of intimidation. Freedom, as exercised by individual citizens, had virtually ceased to exist. On the other hand, 400 persons were said to be imprisoned under the Lord Lieutenant's warrants. There had been very serious uots in Dublin. On the 3rd of January the Lord Mayor and Corporation bestowed the freedom of the city on Messrs. Parnell and Dillon while they were still in Kilmainham jail.

At the same time Belfast had never been more peaceful. The two resident magistrates had been taken away to act in other places, and it had not been thought necessary to find substitutes. Sir Edward Cowan in entering on the second year of his Mayoralty could congratulate the Town Council that while trade seemed so depressed in Dublin, and there all progress appeared to be at an end, in the course of the past year in Belfast, fifteen hundred new buildings, with fifty nine new streets, had been erected, and the valuation of the town had more than doubled in twenty years. " It is, I think," said the Mayor, " highly creditable that while many other districts of the country were more or less disturbed, Belfast enjoyed such exceptional peace and quiet." In commenting on these facts it was remarked that Dublin and Belfast were steadily taking up antagonistic positions.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin and his Nationalist Corporation were told that whatever future they might think themselves pre paring for Ireland, Belfast, with a large proportion of the population and so much of the wealth and intel- A TERRIBLE YEAR 3 j.-- ligence of Ulster, would have something to say about that future, and that such " a large town, backed by so large a part of the province, forms and must form an important factor, which will have to be taken into consideration by those who call out for Home Pule, Nationalism, and Ireland for the Irish." This year 1882 was called a terrible year. It was so. Mr. Forster and Earl Cowper were in the spring bravely and honestly administering the Protection Act ; but they were opposed by the systematic lawlessness of the old Land Leaguers, who sought to resent the imprisonment of Mr. Parnell and so many of his followers.

In the Queen's Speech some credit was taken for the state of Ireland being a little better than it had been. But they who watched the events as they sadly followed one another could see no indications of improvement. The sky became darker and more lurid. The second great Irish Land Act had no fair play. In the House of Lords and in the House of Commons it was strongly denounced by some Conservatives. It seemed that certain peers wished to intimidate the Commissioners in the performance of their duties. The new Land Courts were represented by them as revolutionary, while the Land Leaguers represented them as really hostile to the interests of the tenants, and at the best utterly useless for their professed objects. These two antagonistic parties were short-sighted. The B r newly-elected Irish Solicitor-General was attacked in both Houses for statements, which he had never made, in the county of Derry about promising the farmers in return for their support a much larger reduction in their rents.

Mr. A. M. Porter, who has since filled his high judicial position with much success, was incapable of making such promises. In the Queen's Speech there was no announcement of any new Irish measures ; but the state of Ireland occupied nearly the whole attention of the two Houses of Parliament. Mr. Gladstone eloquently defended his Irish officials ; it seemed that whatever his Government might or might not do, it would enter into no compromise with crime. All the Irish newspapers were full of outrages on cattle as well as on human beings. The Queen wrote a letter deploring the mutilation of poor dumb animals. The fact of it having been stated in the Royal Speech that there had been some slight improvement in the condition of Ireland appeared to give an additional stimulus to mur derous violence.

The bodies of an old man and a boy in the service of Lord Ardilaun were subse quently discovered in Lough Mask. There were other murders not less atrocious. Mr. Herbert, the Kerry magistrate, who had fearlessly but not harshly done his duty, was killed, and not long afterwards Mrs. Smythe in Westmeath suffered a similar fate on returning from church in her brother-in-law's carriage. Eich and poor, high and low felt the same tyranny. DENUNCIATIONS OF MR. FORSTER 5 The police were attacked in Dublin ; informers were shot. But there were some indications that the leaders of the Conservative party were disposed to attempt to conciliate the Irish Nationalists. Mr. W. H. Smith gave notice of an intention of dealing with Irish land purchase, and on what were called the closure re solutions, and especially on an amendment of Mr. Marriott just before Easter, the Government had a somewhat small majority.

The Pall Mall Gazette foreshadowed a meeting at the Reform Club, in which it was said the Ministers would be advised to modify their strongly coercive Irish policy. Mr. Parnell had been temporarily let out of prison to visit a sick relative in Paris. It seemed that this in dulgence would be followed by his release from all confinement. The denunciations of Mr. Forster be came even more violent than they had ever previously been. Though he had almost as a youth during the famine shown more sympathy with Ireland than any statesman then in active life, and had always been distinguished for his philanthropy, his Irish Nation alist opponents had no scruple in representing him as worse than Cromwell had been in Ireland, as the most ruthless oppressor the country had ever known. But in the North of Ireland his good intentions and his courageous struggle to put down crime were still gratefully recognised.

A large meeting of tenant farmers was held in a Presbyterian church at Brough shane, not far from Ballymena, in the county of Antrim. The policy of the Government with respect to the Irish land question was still highly approved of, even while an unfortunate decision in the Court of Appeal in a well-known case of Adams v. Dunseath was regretted, limiting as it did the com pensation for improvements independently of the Ulster custom to their actual money cost.1 Mr. Forster appeared to those Ulster Liberal tenant farmers, nearly all of whom are now Liberal Unionists, as a great and good man, struggling against most unscrupulous calumniators. Just at this time some verses appeared in an Ulster newspaper, entitled " Mr. Forster at Tullamore." They were written by the son of that Dr. Drennan who, as has been already stated, was, nearly ninety years before, the poet of the United Irishmen.

These verses from the second Dr. Drennan's poem may be quoted to show in what a different light Mr. Forster was then regarded by the Ulster Liberals from that 1 I give the following statement from one of the ablest of the present legal sub-commissioners : " The Adams v. Dunseath case, which has produced so much heartburning in Ulster, was not intended to apply to Ulster. But it has in some measure been so applied. By this decision the tenant could have the value of his improvements compensated for, so far as it was represented by the actual money cost ; but not the value as shown in the im provement of the soil. Mr. Law, as Chancellor, dissented from the other judges on appeal. Had his judgment been confirmed, the difficulty might not have arisen. The compensation allowed applied only to the actual cost of improvements, and not to their effect on the land."

This case of Adams v. Dunseath, so often quoted, has been stated to belong to the metaphysics of the land question. Respecting it, as has been seen, judicially very different opinions have been expressed. RUMOUR OF RESIGNATIONS 7 in which he was represented by the Parnellite newspapers : He stood before an adverse crowd With calm though earnest look, And spoke unguarded and uncowed To listen and rebuke. Maligned, denounced, nigh done to death, By factions, hate, and wrong, He did not speak with bated breath, Or smoothly glozing tongue. " No selfish fear was his to feel, No plaudit sought he then : He pleading was for Ireland's weal, And lives of Irishmen." The persistent rumours about the impending resignations of the Lord Lieutenant and the Irish Chief Secretary were heard with some anxiety in Ulster, where the objects of the Land Leaguers, however they might call themselves, were thoroughly understood.

It was remarked that the announcement which had appeared first in the Pall Mall Gazette could not but have come from Lord Spencer's private secretary, who was at that time its proprietor. Mr. Gladstone's Ulster supporters still hoped almost against hope that what they with full knowledge regarded as a disastrous step would not be taken. The Prime Minister was reminded how faithfully his predecessor, Lord Palmerston, had stood by his colleagues and all other officials of the Government, how he had said on a memorable occasion, " Never give up a man who has done his duty." On a visit to London in the spring, I one afternoon unexpectedly met Lord O'Hagan in the gallery of the House of Commons. The retired Irish Lord Chancellor was listening to an Irish debate in which on one side were Mr. Sexton and Mr. Healy, and on the other Mr. Gladstone.

It was evident from the smiles which Mr. Sexton and Mr. Healy exchanged while the Prime Minister was speaking that there was an understanding of which the conditions were an Arrears Bill and the release of the prisoners in Kilmainham. Lord O'Hagan said, " Something is in the wind." Whether or not he knew of any arrangement come to by the Government with the Irish Nationalist members he did not say. A pleasant little comedy seemed to be enacted on that afternoon, with Mr. Sexton, Mr. Healy, and Mr. Gladstone play ing the principal and apparently well-rehearsed parts. The notice Mr. W. H. Smith had given with respect to Irish land purchase, while a committee of the Peers on the Land Act were drawing up their report, undoubtedly precipitated events. Mr. Gladstone was evidently not willing to be forestalled, to find the ground cut away from beneath his feet.

On Saturday, the twenty-ninth of April, it was announced that Earl Cowper had resigned. On the following Wednes day, while confirming this statement officially in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone declared that Mr. Forster's resignation had also been accepted. A painstaking and most conscientious Lord Lieu tenant, and an earnest and high-minded statesman who had been thought worthy of being the leader of MR. FORSTER'S AMENDE HONORABLE TO BELFAST 9 the Liberal party, had been sacrificed. Mr. Parnell, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. Kelly had already been re leased from Kilmainham. A compromise had been arranged between the ministers and the represen tatives of the Land League. It was positively stated that the bearer of a remarkable letter, and the mediator between the two parties, wTas Captain O'Shea.

Just before his resignation Mr. Forster, in Dublin Castle, received a deputation from the representatives of the Belfast Queen's College. The new Irish University Act was only by degrees being carried into effect. The Royal University, after the plan had been sketched in the measure, was, like some treaties, left to carry out itself. Great jealousy was shown by the Irish Catholic bishops of the professors of the Queen's College. On listening to the statements made by the Northern deputation, Mr. Forster admitted the truth of what he had been told on becoming Chief Secretary. He had not found Belfast the Avorst town in Ireland to govern. He declared that it was a credit, not merely to Ireland, but to the United Kingdom and the Empire. Thus on leaving office he paid the amende honorable to Belfast, Thus he admitted that instead of finding the present city, the capital of Ulster, the worst town in Ireland to govern, it was the best, as it was by far the most progressive.

The Government, it was said, had determined to carry out a policy of clemency and energy. " Clemency and energy" was the cry. Earl Spencer, it was already said, had been appointed the Irish Lord Lieutenant with a seat in the Cabinet. Two days after Mr. Forster's resignation wTas admitted by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, a new writ was moved for the Northern Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in consequence of its member, Lord Frederick Cavendish, having accepted the office of Irish Chief Secretary. There was great rejoicing among the Nationalists. At one of their meetings in Belfast, the Chairman alluded to the sudden change which had come over Mr. Gladstone's mind. Two clays before, the Prime Minister appeared to be defending in the House of Commons Mr. Forster's policy : he had, however, now accepted Mr. Forster's resignation.

It became known that Earl Cowper's resignation had been forwarded to the Prime Minister some six weeks before it had been acted upon : but all that time the attacks on the Lord Lieutenant had continued in the Pall Mall Gazette and other newspapers supposed to be more or less in the confidence of the Government. Many of the prisoners who were called suspects had been confined in the Ulster county jails, particularly of Down and Armagh. Their release was greeted with illuminations in NewTy, Armagh, Londonderry, Belfast, and of course in Dublin and Cork. The Unionists in the North of Ireland, however much attached to Mr. Gladstone, looked grave and had many misgivings. They did not believe in the statesmanlike wisdom of the sudden surrender to what they considered to be utter lawlessness. THE PHŒNIX PARK MURDERS 11 It wTas on Thursday, the 5th of May, that it be came known Lord Frederick Cavendish had accepted the post of Irish Chief Secretary.

It was only on the following Saturday that the Irish newspapers were commenting on his address to the electors of his Yorkshire constituency on accepting office. In that address, in appealing for renewed support to the electors, he stated he wras sensible of " the very onerous duties to wdiich I have been unexpectedly called." That day he arrived in Dublin. That evening he and the Under Secretary, Mr. Burke, wTere murdered in the Phœnix Park, almost in the presence and in the sight of the new Lord Lieutenant, before the windows of the Viceregal Lodge. On this shocking catastrophe it is not necessary to dwell. It carries wdth it its own moral. In Ulster, where there was little sympathy with the sudden change of policy, the news produced an appalling effect. In the churches of Belfast, Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist, the an nouncement of the murders of the previous evL 'tig was made by the clergymen during the morning services.

People looked at one another with dismay. The next day as the details were given to the world it was written : " We forbear from speculating on the effect of this frightful murder. But it cannot but show one fact clearly to all who regard it. This is that there is a thoroughly disaffected and treason able spirit at work, not to be conciliated by any remedial measures, nor by any remedial policy." On the following day in referring to the adjournment of the House of Commons in consequence of the murders, it was also written in the same columns : " The assassinations were deliberately carried out in order to defeat all moderate counsels and to compel the Government to move with a strong hand. There was evidently the most deliberate malignity in the work of blood. It shows what a spirit is fomenting under the surface of the social life of Ireland.

It shows that those who appeal to national hatreds, to evil passions for the promotion of political objects, are calling forth a foul and bloody monster whom they cannot control, and who will make them his instruments not for national regeneration, but for selfish and anarchical ends." These declarations found general acceptance among the Loyalists of Ulster. Among them there was not a dissentient voice. A public meeting under the chair manship of the Mayor was held in Belfast, attended by all the leading merchants, clergymen, professors of the Queen's College, the tradesmen, and the more respectable of the working classes. The Catholic Bishop of the diocese, the Most Rev. Dr. Dorrian, was present and strongly condemned the two appalling murders. It was, however, remarked to one another by many of those who were present that only on the Friday evening, the evening before the assassinations, at a Nationalist meeting in Belfast to celebrate the release of Messrs. Parnell, Dillon, and Kelly, a Catholic priest had used the most Aaolent language.

On the following morning a few of the sentences reported as spoken by this reverend gentleman appeared, the THE SPEECH OF A NATIONALIST PRIEST 13 very day of the two deeds of blood: " They wanted," he said, "a man in Ireland, but a man who was pre pared to go the whole hog with Mr. Michael Davitt. As for Dublin Castle, they might burn it any time. It wras a nest of vipers. It would be well for Ireland if it were reduced to ashes to-morrow. They were there to congratulate the suspects, the men who had put their names to the ' Nq, Rent ' Manifesto, the men who were gaining the land for the people of Ireland, and to them they were there to swear allegiance. He hoped they wrould be ready to go into the cannon's mouth, into the jaws of death, even to the gates of hell if need be." The whole audience, rising to their feet, cheered these words from the reverend orator.