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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 44, 19 August 1892, Page 5

Lady Aberdeen received an address a* Berwick from the Berwickshire Women's Liberal Association, and delivered a very eloquent address, in which she ably dealt with the Ulster question. In the course of her remarks she said .—". — " Have Catholic constituenees shown themselves backward in sending Protestant representatives to Parliament, as long as they would support the national aspirations? You will find it is not co, but that on the contrary a largo number of the popular heroes have all been Proteslants, such as Swift, Grattan, Flood, Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, John Mitchel, Smith OBrien, Butt, Parnell, and a score of others. Has the municipal vote in Catholic towns shown a tendency to keep Protestants out of office 1 Again the record says ' No.' In Catholic Cork you will find often Protestant mayors and Protestant sheriffs elected. Not long ago out cf the £2,440 emoluments paid to public officials, £1,840 went to Protestants. Apply the same test to Dublin, and you will find that £4,000 goes to Protestant tfficials out of tbe total £8,400 salaries paid to chief officers. There have bean fifteen Protestant mayors in Dublin since 1850, twelve in Waterford since 1845, and thirteen in Limerick since 1841." As the Ulster question was made the main Tory argument at the late elections it is worth noting that : (1) The cry of Protestant life and liberty in danger comes from those districts of tbe North where there is only a very small Catholic minority, and where the Protestant majority really has no means of judging ihe feelinga of the Catholics. In the South the Protestants who are living peacefully iD the midst of a Catholic majority do not think of joining in the cry. They know better. They see Catholics electing Protestants to offices of honour and profit ; and tbey see no trace of an attempt to boycott Protestant businessa enterprises, or to introduce exclusive dealing on sectarian grounds. Bigotry and ignorance go together in the North. (2) The Presbyterians of Ulster are not Nonconformists in tbe English sense. They are practically a state endowed Church. When the Irish Church was disestablished the Presbyterians received nearly a quarter of a million sterling in compensation for the withdrawal of the grant known as the " Regiurn Donum." This money was invested chiefly in Irish land. It would be narvellous, therefore, if this endowed landlord organisation took the popular side, or showed the same large«minded spirit as the Nonconformists of England. The non-residence of people of means and rank is growing more glaring than ever. There it a very large Irish contingent in the array of style and beauty that may be seen careering on Rotton Row in London and along the Champs Elysees and ia the Bo s de Boulogne in Paris. Speculators never imagine that the horses and riders came over from Ireland. The horses indeed are Irish, for no prouder nor more stylish steeds can be found anywhere, but the saddles and equipments are either English or French. Irish emigration to America and Australia was almost stopped a few years ago, but it received a new impetus from the split in the Nationalist ranks, and the clasa of people now going away are of the thrifty sore — people the country cannot well afford to lose. In 1890 the emigration to foreign lands reached 61,000, and last year it was higher still ; but the tide of emigration to England hag been larger an 1 more steady, uitil now it is said theie are 3,000,000 Irish in that laud. It ia true these men are not wholly lost to Ireland, for they are sowing the doctrine of liberalism among the people of England. His Grace the Archbishop presided at a public meeting held recently in the Carmelite Church, Whitefriar street, the object of which was to appeal for funds to provide new schools for the children of the locality, In the coarse of an interesting address, his Grace gave a striking instance of bigotry on the part of a section of those who are now clamouring for compulsory education. The schools of the Carmelite Fathers have become so delapidated as to be dangerous to tbe children. As a substitute, the Fathers had arranged with the College of Surgeons to purchase the vacant Carmichael Schools of Medicine for £3,000. The governors of the college held the ground nnder lease from tho ''Incorporated Society for the Promotion of English Protestant Schools in Ireland." This body, on learning that tbe Carmelite Fathers were in treaty for the premises, declare 1 that they required security for tbe rent. This the College of Surgeons offered to do, but it soon became evident that the real grounds for objection bad not been stated in the first instance, as the society absolutely refused to assent to the sale on any conditions. By this bigoted action it ia more than likely that seven or eight buDdred children will be thrown on the streets during the re-building of the schools. This ia a sample of the conduct of these enlightened individuals who prate loudest about the necessity for compulsory education in Ireland. Those who attended the meeting, however. have done tteir utmost to nullify the odium of this bigoted body. They subscribed liberally towards a fund for the erection of new schools. All is not gloom in Ireland. In many branches of industry business is growing apace. It is rare in Dublin to see the sign "To Let " posted on a store or dwelling, and this is a healthy sign. But the greatest boom in business is in the northern section of the country. In Belfast and points close by it is said that the vast sum of £20,000,000 is invested in the manufacture of linens and damasks in factories notably prosperous and giving employment to 17,000 hands,

Two great shipbuilding yards bare establisbel a solid foothold in Belfast, giving employment to about 6,000 men. A great boom was givea to Belfast as a shipbuilding port by the eminent success wbieh has attended the building of the great transatlantic steamers of the White Star Line. While the linen and damask business flourishes in Ulster, it is a fact worthy of note that the damask factory in Kevin street, Dublin, has been closed for want of patronage. There is a silk spinning mill in Cork which does an extensive business in supplying the factories in the North of Ireland. Shirt. making has become a very profitable industry in Londonderry, where extensive works supply a wide demand all over the United Kingdom. The business is done by machines combined with what is known as home or ' cottage industry." Mullingar, in the centre of Ireland, is looking 'ahead in the same business. It is about time the Nationalists of Ulster and of Ireland should be warned against the insidious doctrine preasbed by Mr W. T. Stead in the Review of Reviews. Mr Stead is a journalist of considerable distinction, but it is rather remarkable that he bas never yet been the champion of a cause in adversity. He did much to spoil the chances of the election of 1886 by his milk-and-water support of Mr Gladstone in the columns of the Pall Mall Gazette, of which he was then editor. He is the champion of every " fad " known to newspaper readers, from Mattei medicines to Salvation Army propaganda. Last month and the month preceding he wrote a couple of *' character sketches" in his review, in which he slavishly flittered Mr Gladstone. The Liberal leader, however, seems to have nettled Mr Stead by stating that he had not evea read the sketches, and that Mr Stead had no authority from him to be tha medium of his views on women suffrage or any other political questions. In June Mr Stead takes his revenge on the man he beslavered ia April and May by attacking the prin - ciple of Home Rule, which he knows is nearest to Mr Gladstone's heart, and by declaring that " Bnglishmen have gone stale on Home Rule," and that the " living interest in the coming election centres far more in the social questions which affect thirty million Britons than in the political question which affects five or six million Irish." Once Mr Sexton— it was in days when the thadow of th« Divorce Court had not yet thrown itself on the pathway of our National freedom—declared that so long as there were two such men as William O'Brien and William Steai at the head of the Irish and the English Press respectively, Ireland need not fear for the success of her cause. Now William O'Brien is libelled weekly in the newspaper which he made the pulse of the Irish nation, and W. Stead, having essayed everything in journalism and succeeded in doing but little, falls back as a last resource on abu.-e of Mr Gladstone and Home Rule, the man and the policy on wbica be raised himself into public notice. Time works wonders, but we trust our friends will not forget the treachery of Mr W. T. Stead.