Ireland as It Is And as It Would be Under Home Rule   By: Robert John Buckley

Transcriber's Note: The original book for this e text is full of inconsistent hyphenation, punctuation and capitalization, which has been preserved. This e text contains Irish dialect, with unusual spelling. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For a complete list, please see the end of this document.

IRELAND AS IT IS AND AS IT WOULD BE UNDER HOME RULE.

SIXTY TWO LETTERS WRITTEN BY THE SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF THE BIRMINGHAM DAILY GAZETTE, BETWEEN MARCH AND AUGUST, 1893.

With Map of Ireland showing the places visited.

BIRMINGHAM: BIRMINGHAM DAILY GAZETTE COMPANY, LIMITED, HIGH STREET.

LONDON: 47, FLEET STREET, E.C.

PRINTED BY THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE CO., LTD., 52 AND 53, HIGH STREET, BIRMINGHAM.

[Illustration]

SPECIAL COMMISSIONER'S PREFACE.

Irish Loyalists will not soon forget the early part of 1893. Arriving in Dublin in March, it at once became evident that the industrial community regarded Home Rule, not with the academical indifference attributed to the bulk of the English electorate, but with absolute dismay; not as a possibility which might be pleasantly discussed between friends, but as a wholly unnecessary measure, darkly iniquitous, threatening the total destruction of all they held dear. English lukewarmness was hotly resented, but the certainty that England must herself receive a dangerous if not a mortal wound, was scant comfort to men who felt themselves on the eve of a hopeless struggle for political, nay, even for material existence. This was before the vast demonstrations of Belfast and Dublin, before the memorable function in the Albert Hall, London, before the hundreds of speakers sent forth by the Irish Unionist Alliance had visited England, spreading the light of accurate knowledge, returning to Ireland with tidings of comfort and joy. The change in public feeling was instant and remarkable. Although from day to day the passage of the Bill through the Commons became more and more a certainty, the Irish Unionists completely discarded their fears, resuming their normal condition of trust and confidence. Mr. H.L. Barnardo, J.P., of Dublin, aptly expressed the universal feeling when he said:

"We have been to England, and we know three things, that the Bill will pass the Commons, that the Lords will throw it out, and that the English people don't care if they do."

This accounted for the renewed serenity of the well doing classes, whose air and attitude were those of men thankful for having narrowly escaped a great danger. The rebound was easily observable in cities like Dublin and Belfast, where also was abundantly evident the placid resignation of the Separatist forces, whose discontent with the actual Bill and profound distrust of its framer, superadded to an ever increasing qualmishness inevitably arising from acquaintance with the prospective statesmen of an Irish Legislature, caused them to look forward to the action of the Lords with ill disguised complacency. In regions more remote the scattered Loyalists lacked the consolation arising from numbers and propinquity to England, and accordingly their tremors continued, and, in a smaller degree, continue still. To them the Bill is a matter of life and death; and while their industry is crippled, their mental peace is destroyed by the ever present torture of suspense.