The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-10-17

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES SsSaSaStSa6sS164SaaSaS
8 Chesterton on Home Rule &
al7lesiieessesisssieseeeas8'aeaeeieie999s'essS
Wordsworth. in one Of those two
or three great, touching phrases by
which alone he saved himself from
being seen forever as an old fool in
blue spectacles. said something like
this-that it is the gratitude of men,
not their ingratitude, that really
brings tears to the eyes.
It is much the same way with in
ternational sentiment between ma
tions. They say that each nation de-
spices every other nation. 1t seems
to me each nation respects every
other nation far too much. At any
other each takes other nations much
too seriously. There are American
millionaires whom hardly anybody
will speak to in America who are re-
ceived like royal potentates when
they land in England. There are ar
fists who have come near criminal
prosecution in England who can lee
ture to enthusiastic audiences in
America. .. .s... .
And this is not a stain on human
nature. It is one of the few rags Of
real splendor that human nature has
hanging to it still. Every real pa
triot exaggerates the power Of the
foreigner. Every fighting man over
rates his adversary unless he has
squared of with him. It is this diff
ficulty I have always felt in approach
ing the problem Of Ireland. It is
this problem I feel even more when
I. attempt to explain it to America.
There is only one argument against
Home Rule. do not, think anyone
has ever mentioned It before.
doubt, whether anyone will ever men
ton 1t again. For shall suggest 1t
in this article and smash it IN this
article long before ordinary political
papers have suggested it The lone
and.only argument against Home
Rule is that Parliament has ceased
to be an instrument of public liberty.
All other arguments are in the In
tellectual dust-bin. .g = ~. !.
The old English aversion to a Par
lament on College Green rested on
two complete ideas. It was their mis-
fortune that they were complete mis-
takes. The first was that Catholicity
was something that must soon fade
off the face of the earth. like can
nibalism. The secind was Belfast:
the black prosperity Of the industrial
system must spread over the an
Client provinces as it has spread in
my own country over provinces in
the Mid1ands and the North. Mod
ern smoke has rolled over North
umbria and Mercia and Strath-
clyde. They thought it would roll
as steadily over Ulster and Munster
and Connaught. They were wrong.
There was in places permanent re-
sistance. ..s
The brute fact is this: Belfast
has not bred any suburbs. Sydney
Smith said Brighton Pavilion looked
as If st. Paul's Cathedral had come
down and Uttered; but Belfast has
never Uttered. There is no place like
it in Ireland. There never will be.
All that sort of opposition to
Home Rule no longer exists. The
cheap Irishman Of the old numbers Of
Punch" who looked like Chin
panzee, no longer exists. mean he
no longer exists in punch" OF
course he never existed anywhere
else. Also, religious bigorty is dead,
which deeply regret. Belfast
would have an absolute right to
A6AI AOA AIo ACA61Ou UuI LUZ Iu0 uu-
fortunate fact that It has no reli-
g1on to fight for. We all remember
the story Of the Orangeman who was
asked by rather refined High
Church curate to give on his death
bed some sign that he died in the
Christian faith, and who used his
last lungs to cry. ITO hell with the
Pope"
I should never object to that. I
should rather doubt whether the
Pope would object to it. It was real
religion as far as it went; but re-
ligion is only real as long as it is be-
lieved. The Orangeman had no more
theological right to damn the Pope
than Dante had, but they both did it.
What is vital to our discussion is
this-that all that religion is dead
in Belfast exactly as it is dead in
Birmingham.
don't mean that they believe in
anybody else's religion; simply
mean that they don't believe in their
own religion. have not the faint
est objection to their saying, "To