and Belfast, are divided by the most irrational antagonism.  Labourers, both rural and urban, have distinct and important interests; the rural labourers have no spokesman, the town-labourers only one.  It was admitted to me by a Unionist organizer in Belfast that that city, but for the Home Rule issue, would probably return four labour members.  Nor have parties any close relation to the distribution of wealth.  In the matter of incomes the prosperous traders of Cork, Limerick, and Waterford are in the same case as regards taxation with those of Londonderry and Belfast.  Publicans are Unionists in England, Nationalists in Ireland, both in Ulster and elsewhere.  Before the Home Rule issue was raised, Ulster was largely Liberal.  Ulster Liberalism is almost dead.  Extreme Socialism may almost be said to be non-existent in Ireland, yet Ireland is not only administered on semi-collectivist principles, but continually runs the risk of being involved in legislation of a Socialistic kind, which, rightly or wrongly, she heartily dislikes.

As for the landed aristocracy all over Ireland, their historic alliance with the intensely democratic tenant-farmers of one small corner of Ireland, North-East Ulster, against those of all the rest, presented strange enough features in the past, and is now becoming artificial in the highest degree.  Thanks to Land Purchase, no landed aristocracy in the world now has a better chance of throwing its wealth and intelligence into public life for the good of the whole country, of thinking out problems, of conciliating factions, and of ennobling public life.  The landlord who has sold his land is a free man, far freer than the English landlord from misgivings caused by divergency of interest.  The opportunity is still there.  Will they profit by it?  One thing is essential:  they must become Nationalists, and in breathing that phrase, one is conscious of all the misleading implications and the bitter historical feuds it suggests.  Yet a small but powerful group of landlords is already leading the way.  And the way, even before Home Rule, in reality is so simple.  I speak from close observation.  If a man is a good man, and worthy to represent a constituency, he has only to declare his belief that he thinks that he and his own fellow-citizens are fit to govern themselves.  Irishmen, especially in Roman Catholic districts, and, indeed, as an indirect result of Catholicism, have never lost their belief in aristocracy.  When a landlord, or any other Protestant, comes forward as a Nationalist, he is welcomed.  His religion, whatever it may be, does not count.  Parnell and Smith O’Brien were Protestant landlords.  Many of the most trusted popular leaders, Tone, Robert Emmet, John Mitchel, Isaac Butt, and others in the past have been Protestants.  Ten Members of the present Nationalist party are Protestants.  The Home Rule issue would have lost some of its bitterness if a Unionist electorate had ever elected a Catholic to Parliament.