"ULSTERI A."

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

"ULSTERI A."

(From the Dunedin Star,} "Ulbtebia" is the name aptly applied by Mr 'Punch' to the interesting but peculiar Btate of mind which prompted the anti-Home Bule Convention held in Belfast daring the third week of Jane. Mr Laboachere, with equal felicity, dubs the demonstration a " Great Orange Orgie." Every possible means appears to have been taken in order to ensure the eclat of this Ulaterical attempt to frighten the British electors into voting against their convictions. Lord Salisbury, with bis usual "blazing indiscretion" (the phrase is Mr John Morley'e), had taken periodical occasions to encourage the Orangemen in their policy of foolish bluster and still more foolish menace ; while the Duke of Devonshire and Mr Chamberlain were not behindhand at the same genial occupation. The seed fell on likely soil, and the terrible, pugnacious gathering took place in due course. According to the Pall Mall Gazette, no expense had been spared to " nobble " the Press, descriptive paragraphs being furnished to all papers "free of cost," and even " free passes " being generously offered. The Times, with a ridiculous lack of the sense of proportion, styles this precious gathering the greatest political manifes'ation o! our time, and prints verbatim the frothy and semi-seditious speeches of obscure Belfast merchants and ministers— the Times, which would be the first to denounce these impudent menaces if they came f;om tbe majority, instead of the minority, of the IrUh people. The same paper, with really amazing audacity, declares that " a united province has delivered itself at last in terms allowiug of no misunderstanding." A united province, forso th, when in one of the divisions of Belfast itself Mr Sexton has just pollei 3,427 votes against the 4,266 of his successful opponent I Reading Unionist speeches, one would think that there was ro such thing as a Home Kuler or a Roman Catholic in the whole of Ulster. Mr Stead, wiifng in the Review of Reviews on " the bluff, about Ulster," remarks : " Tie majority of the people of Ulster are Roman Catholics. The majority of the members for Ulster are Home Rulers, and there is as much chance of Ulßter as a whole t-.king the field against a Home Kule Parliament as there is of Mayo revolting against Dublin." ADd Mr Stead goes on to point out that, in the heroics of Unionist oratory, "Ulster" really meaos Antrim and Down, " or, to put it differently, Belfast and the appurten»nces thereof," though, as was j ist now shown, B^lf ist itself contains a formidable Home Rule minority. The first resolution passed at the Cjnvention occupies no less than thirty-seven of • The Timers' long l<nes. Among this verbiage we find an expression of " determination to have nothing to do with" an Irish Pailiament, and a warning (or rather a threat) to the people of Great Britain that the attempt to set up such a Parliament will " inevitably result in disorder, violence, and bloodshed such as have not been experienced in this century." Moreover, the resjlution pledges its supporters not only to take no part in the election or proceedings of an Irish Parliament duly constituted by Imperial enac ment, but to repudiate its authority. The Duke of Abercorn, who presided over the Convention, made a childish attempt to prove that the resolution conveyed no threat. His explanation is too rich to be omitted :-" On the comrary, this meeting beld out the right hand of friendship to our brethren in the rest of Ireland, for if you will refiT to the last resolution that will be submitted to-day you willperee.vetnat our fellow-countrymen are implored to abrndou a demand that hopelessly divides Irishmen, and to unite with us under the Imperial Legislature " 1 Was ever a more pitiable apologia offered by a presumably sane spaaker in the presence of presumably sane bearers? Everybody knows that the Conventionist threat is only hypothetical, and that the " Ulstericals " would cot engage in lawlessness and sedition provided they cculd induce the majority of

their fellow-countrymen to waive the Nationalist^demand and knock under to their petty provincial prejudices. " Give ns our own way and we will remain law-abiding citizens ; but give the vast majority of Irishmen their way, and then ." Such, practically, in the interesting quos ego attitude of these people. Take the following spicy peroration of a Belfast clergyman, who is also (suitably enough) Grand Master of the Orangemen of Belfast. After quoting some rather silly and braggart words of Lord Wolaeley'fl, tbe reverend and bellicose gentleman exclaimed : "He is one of üb— an Irish Loyalist (sic) to the core. Our fathers followed his gallant ancester at Newtownbutler, and followed him to victory ; and we canoot do better than fix our eyes upon the oriflamme of Wolseley, and follow him in his war upon domestic treason.— (Loud cheers.)" Yet the Times'* actually declares that there was no threatening or swaggering at tbe Convention I Mr Laboucbere, with his usual acumen and lucidity, has drawn up what he terms " A Short Popular Catechism of Common Sense " upon this question, and we cannot do better than summarise its contents. Ireland is a portion of, and under the same government as, the Britisi Empire, whose laws are made by the Imperial Parliament ; an Act of Parliament (by which alone the Irish can obtain Home Rule) is binding on all subjects of tbe Qaeen, the Irish included ; tbe refusal of two- thirds of Ulster to recognise an Act constituting an Irish Parliament would ba " the rebellion of two-thirds of the people of Ulster against the British Empire"; and compels obedience to the decree of the Crown Parliament. In answer to the question as to whether the rebellion will ever take placa, Mr Laboachere says : "the suggestion is simply preposterous " ; the " Ulster" speeches of Unionist leaders are " absolute and nnmitigated nonsense " ; and the explanation of these speeches lies ia the old saying, " Quos Beusvult perdere, prius de?nental." In another place the Bame politician writes : '• The bowlines of Orangemen must not be mistaken for tbe voice even of that small portion of Ulster where Protestants outnumber Catholics. A very large number of the former are Home Rulers, and regard with indignation thisatttempt on the part of Lord Salisbury and bogus Orangs delegates to stir up religious animosities." Toe day after the Belfast Convention Mr Gladstone addressed a meeting of Nonconformists at the house of the Rsv Guinnes9 Rogars at Clapham, and the epeesh which te there delivered should be read in connection with the Ulaterical demonstration. We have not space to dwell upon this effective reply, but inter alia, the Liberal leader demonstrated the ex reme unlikelihood of Home Rule resulting in Rome Rule or persecution of Protestantism. It may be worth while, in conclusion, to quote, the following words, which were contained in a manifesto put forward by Ulster Protestants about twenty -three years ago, just previous to the disestablishment of the Irish Church ; they show that there is nothing new or very formidable in the phenomenon of Ulsteria :— '• Such measures as are now threatened will be resented by tne Protestants of Ireland as an attack upon their most sacred rights, a perfidious violation of the union between England and Ireland, and a spoliation of property secured to their forefathers and themselves by the faith of treaties and the honour of England."

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