Not one of the advocates of this bloodless war which they propose has, so far as I am aware, in spite of three years spent in preaching on the subject, refused to pay income tax, the only tax resistance to which is possible in Ireland.  Those who hold Civil Service appointments under the British Crown have not in a single instance, unless I am mistaken, handed in their resignations.  These are the criticisms which they inevitably draw down on their heads by stooping to make imputations as to men whose services to the country should put them above reach of anything of the kind.  Within the last few months two of the leaders of Sinn Fein appeared, in the course of a few weeks—­the one as plaintiff, the other as defendant—­represented by a Tory counsel, in the Four Courts in Dublin, before a member of a foreign judiciary, which on their fundamental axiom should be taboo.  The reason is to be found, perhaps, in the fact that they have not yet devised a means by which attachment and committal for contempt of their proposed amateur tribunals will be made effectual.  The method by which the resolutions of the National Council are to be carried into effect has not yet been explained, nor have the means by which they will acquire a sanction in so far as their breach will involve the offender in a punishment.  We have yet to learn what guarantee there is that the consuls in foreign parts, whom they propose to establish and maintain by voluntary subscription, will be given any facilities by the countries in which they are stationed, without which their presence in those foreign countries would be of no service whatever.

Half a century ago a great voluntary effort, which may well be called Sinn Fein, was made in the foundation of the Catholic University in Dublin.  In spite of the glamour of John Henry Newman’s name it was crippled from the fact of the poverty of the country on the voluntary contributions of which it had to depend.  One may well ask if the exponents of the new policy have any confidence that the same obstacle will not stand in the way of more than a trivial fraction of their extensive, and as I think Utopian, proposals.  The No Rent Manifesto fell flat in the midst of the very bitterest struggle of the land war.  Does anyone think it likely that we shall see behind the doctrinaires of the Sinn Fein group a country united in cold blood to repudiate its obligations under the Land Purchase and Labourers’ Acts?

The Irish people are under no illusions as to the advocates of Sinn Fein, and will, I am convinced, refuse to judge it on its own valuation.  If for no other reason its exponents would be suspect in that they have not scrupled to assure a sympathetic Orange audience of the fact that they are on the point of rending asunder the allegiance of Ireland to the National cause.  While protesting aloud their patriotism they have not thought it incompatible with their declarations to flood the columns of the Unionist Press—­the most hostile to the democracy of their country—­with expositions of their views, coupled with strident denunciations of their Nationalist opponents.