hearts is through their pockets; that the report of the Commissioners
brought all Ulster into line with the Nationalists. Such a vision of the
Protestant lion lying down with the Catholic lamb had not been seen
since the Volunteers had mustered in 1778, and then, too, curiously
enough, the common cause was financial, being the demand for the removal
of the commercial restraints on the island.

A conference was held in 1896, presided over by Col. Saunderson, the
leader of the Orangemen, and was attended by all the Irish members,
irrespective of party. The outcome was a resolution in the House of
Commons, proposed by Mr. John Redmond, and seconded by Mr. Lecky. The
rejoinder of the Government to the demands made was to the effect that
the postulate of the Commissioners that Ireland and Great Britain must,
for the purposes of the inquiry, be considered as separate entities
stultified the report.

One cannot characterise this attitude otherwise than as a piece of
special pleading. The appointment, not merely of the Royal Commission,
but of the Select Committees of 1865 and 1890, presupposed a disparity
between the conditions in the two countries which not only existed in
fact but were recognised by law.

In regard to the Church, the kind, the police, education, and even
marriage, the laws are different in the two countries; and we have seen
how, in respect of such widely separate things as land, railway
passengers, and armorial bearings, the systems of taxation are distinct.

The position of the official Conservatives was well stigmatised by one
of the most distinguished among their own body--Mr. Lecky--when he
declared that--