fellow-countrymen in mind and manner than they are to any other
people, they still retain habits, beliefs and traditions from which
they will not part. They form a class economically powerful. They
have openness and energy of character, great organizing power and
a mastery over materials, all qualities invaluable in an Irish State.
In North-East Ulster, where they are most homogeneous they conduct
the affairs of their cities with great efficiency, carrying on an
international trade not only with Great Britain but with the rest
of the world. They have made these industries famous. They
believe that their prosperity is in large measure due to their
acceptance of the Union, that it would be lessened if they threw
in their lot with the other Ireland and accepted its ideals, that
business which now goes to their shipyards and factories would
cease if they were absorbed in a self-governing Ireland whose
spokesmen had an unfortunate habit of nagging their neighbors and
of conveying the impression that they are inspired by race hatred.
They believe that an Irish legislature would be controlled by a
majority, representatives mainly of small farmers, men who had no
knowledge of affairs, or of the peculiar needs of Ulster industry,
or the intricacy of the problems involved in carrying on an
international trade; that the religious ideas of the majority
would be so favored in education and government that the favoritism
would amount to religious oppression. They are also convinced
that no small country in the present state of the world can really
be independent, that such only exist by sufferance of their mighty
neighbors, and must be subservient in trade policy and military
policy to retain even a nominal freedom; and that an independent
Ireland would by its position be a focus for the intrigues of
powers hostile to Great Britain, and if it achieved independence
Great Britain in self protection would be forced to conquer it