If the policy of Ulster Unionism is unreal there is no word in any
language that can describe the phantasmal nature of the grounds on which
it professes to fear national freedom. Home Rule, declare the orators,
will obviously mean Rome Rule. The _Ne Temere_ decree will de-legitimise
every Protestant in the country. The Dublin Parliament will tax every
"Ulster" industry out of existence. One is told that not only do many
people say, but that some people even believe things of this kind. But
then there are people who believe that they are made of Dresden china,
and will break if they knock against a chair. These latter are to be
found in lunatic asylums. It is indeed particularly worth noting that
when a man begins to see in the whole movement of the world a conspiracy
to oppress and injure him our first step is to inquire not into his
grievance but into his sanity. One finds the same difficulty in
discussing Irish politics in terms of the three hallucinations specified
that one finds in discussing, say, Rugby football with a Dresden-china
fellow-citizen. It is better not to make the attempt, but to substitute
a plain statement of obvious facts.

In the first place, even if any policy of oppression were in our minds,
it is not in our power. The overlordship of the Imperial Parliament
remains in any scheme of Home Rule unimpaired, and any man damnified
because of his religion can appeal in last resort to the Imperial Army
and Navy. Shankhill Road is mathematically safe. After all there are in
England some forty millions of Protestants who, whatever their religious
temperature may be, will certainly decline to see Protestantism
penalised. The Protestants in Ireland have a million and a quarter, and
they make noise enough for twice the number. There are about three and a
quarter millions of Irish Catholics. History concedes to Catholic
Ireland the cleanest record in respect of religious tolerance to be
found anywhere in Europe. We never martyred a saint, and amid all the