of Irish origin. I had some doubt about this, seeing that they spell
their name with an "e" in the last syllable, whereas we and all of the
name in the County Down use an "i." The lady's letter was not only
interesting but most welcome, as showing that they were not only of
Irish but of patriotic origin. They evidently continue to take an
interest in the land from which they have sprung, for the lady made
some enquiries about the late Bishop Denvir, of whom I have already
spoken.

Most of the United Irish leaders and a large proportion of the rank and
file in the '98 Rising were Presbyterians, and fought and bled for
Ireland with the same heroism as their Catholic neighbours, amongst whom
no name is more cherished in the County Down than that of the Protestant
General Monroe, who, my Aunt Mary used to tell us, was hanged at his own
door in 1798. How is it that the sons of the men of 1782 and of
Grattan's Parliament, and of 1798 were not as good Irishmen as their
fathers? I think I can give a kind of explanation.

It must be remembered that the era of Grattan's Parliament and of the
Volunteer movement of 1782, of which present-day Nationalists are so
proud, was also the era of the Penal laws. Since then the Protestants
have seen the Irish Catholic rising from the dust of serfdom and
standing in the attitude of manhood. They have seen him gradually
obtaining a share in the making of the laws of the land, and, naturally,
becoming the predominant political power in Ireland--the Catholics being
the majority of the population. I may be wrong, but I have a theory that
many of the Protestants of Ireland--who once had all the political power
in their hands, and did not always use it too mercifully in their
treatment of the rest of their countrymen--are afraid that if they
assisted in getting self-government for Ireland the power in the hands