The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-08-12
HOME RULE FOR IRELAvs
Mr.. BIRRELL DECLARES THAT
RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE is NO
OBSTACLE TO HOME RULE.

In his speech to the Manchester Re-
form Club, says the London Tablet,
Mr.. Birrell, having stated in reference
to objections against Home Rule that
the bugbears of separation and dis
loyalty had been got rid of, said:
1.-TWO bugbears still remain. It would
be idle to deny their existence. One
is religion-so-called religion; not the
religion of the river Jordan, but the
religion of the river Boyne. The other
difficulty is money. Religion so-called
and money-you cannot say so-called
money. But they are there.
Nov just consider what the religious
difficulty really means. There is no
better Protestant in this club than
am. But the great bulk of the Irish
people belong to what used to be called
in this country "the old religion" All
your ancestors belonged to it, you
know. We have changed our minds,
think for the better, but the Irish
people have not changed their minds.
The Catholic religion plays an enorm-
Gus part in their lives. Their little
way-side, weather-worn chapels, where
they were taken by their mothers to
their first communion; their affections
for their priests who have stood by
them in many O. hard battle, their tenn
pers and their dispositions, and the
whole course of events, up to the pres
ent time, have made them, and con-
G,~r,, ,oI Ho+hn1fac. on6
you won't alter it. Nobody now at
tempts to alter it. There was a time
when there was good deal of prosely-
tism going on in Ireland, Protestant
proselytism and Catholic proselytism.
You find no trace of that now. They are
going on very we'll side by side. They
have come to regard the differences
between Catholics and Protestants as
generic differences, like that between
horse and COW, and although, dare
say, time will come when they will
i preceive that these notions have an
intellectual or a moral basis, they do
not consider that at present. You may
take it, not from me, but from anyone
who knows anything about Ireland,
that the Roman Catholic religion will
prevail there for long time to come,
and everything that we have done in
the past has only had the effect of
riveting that religion upon them. The
contention of the opposition seems to
come to this-that no Roman Catholic
country that contains any Protestants
at all is qualified to have a measure
of self-government, such as, for in
stance, we have conferred upon South
Africa or Canada. They would use it,
they say, to discriminate unfairly
against their Protestant fellow-country-
men, even in the matter of taxation.
That argument, or that course of rea-
soning, IL one can call 1t SO, is now the
basis of the whole case against Home
Rule I do not know how far they
will be used in the House of Com
mons, but they will be used upon every
platform. The Roman Catholics are
not fit to be entrusted-not with their
lives, because their lives will not be
subject to them-but with their prop
erty or with patronage in any shape,
form, or way, and that the Protestants
will suffer wrong and cruel wrong at
their hands. I can only meet that
statement with denial. | am not
saying for a moment that either Pro-
testants or Catholics are absolutely to
be trusted I do not think they are.
There may be cases of injustice and OF
favoritism, here and there; but to say
that the Catholic population OF Ire
land is unfit to exercise local govern
ment simply because a portion Of the
inhabitants of Ireland are Protestants
is, am satisfied, libellous statement
We do not find 1t in the south and
west of Ireland. I have seen in the
towns and villages there the Protest
ant and the Catholic churches side by
side. I have had meals with both the
Protestant and the Catholic priest at
the same table, and ! am satisfied that
IL you impose upon the Irish people the
responsibility of self-government, be-
fore the face Of Europe, you can dis
miss from your minds that their un-
fairness will be of such character
as to unfit them for self-government.
IL