To the majority in Ireland Home Rule may seem to be a blessing, but to the minority it appears as an intolerable curse. Their hostility to it is quite as strong as that which was felt by many of the Catholics of Ireland to Grattan's Parliament. They, too, would say, as the Catholic Bishop of Waterford said at the time of the Union, that they "would prefer a Union with the Beys and Mamelukes of Egypt to the iron rod of the Mamelukes of Ireland." The minority which holds this view is important in numbers, for it comprises at the lowest estimate more than a fourth of the population of Ireland. From every other point of view it is still more important, for probably the minority pays at least half the taxes and does half the trade of Ireland. The influence and also the power of the minority is enormously increased by the way in which its numbers are concentrated in Belfast and the surrounding counties. The men who compose this minority ask no special privilege. They demand only--and they will not demand in vain--that they should not be deprived against their will of the protection of British law and of the rights of British citizenship. CONTENTS. PREFACE _By the Rt. Hon. A. Bonar Law, M.P._ INTRODUCTION _By the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Carson, K.C., M.P._ HISTORICAL I. A NOTE ON HOME RULE _By the Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, M.P._ II. HISTORICAL RETROSPECT _By J.R. Fisher_ CRITICAL III. THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION _By George Cave, K.C., M.P._ IV. HOME RULE FINANCE _By the Rt. Hon. J. Austen Chamberlain, M.P._ V. HOME RULE AND THE COLONIAL ANALOGY _By L.S. Amery, M.P._ VI. THE CONTROL OF JUDICIARY AND POLICE _By the Rt. Hon. J.H. Campbell, K.C., M.P._ VII. THE ULSTER QUESTION _By the Marquis of Londonderry, K.G._ VIII. THE POSITION OF ULSTER _By the Rt. Hon. Thomas Sinclair._ IX. THE SOUTHERN MINORITIES _By Richard Bagwell, M.A._ X. HOME RULE AND NAVAL DEFENCE _By Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, M.P._ XI. THE MILITARY DISADVANTAGES OF HOME RULE _By the Earl Percy._ XII. THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY UNDER HOME RULE (i.) The Church View _By the Rt. Rev. C.F. D'Arcy, Bishop of Down._ (ii.) The Nonconformist View _By Rev. Samuel Prenter, M.A., D.D. (Dublin)._ CONSTRUCTIVE XIII. UNIONIST POLICY IN RELATION TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN IRELAND _By the Rt. Hon. Gerald Balfour._ XIV. THE COMPLETION OF LAND PURCHASE _By the Rt. Hon. George Wyndham, M.P._ XV. POSSIBLE IRISH FINANCIAL REFORMS UNDER THE UNION _By Arthur Warren Samuels, K.C._ XVI. THE ECONOMICS OF SEPARATISM _By L.S. Amery, M.P._ XVII. PRIVATE BILL LEGISLATION _By the Rt. Hon. Walter Long, M.P._ XVIII. IRISH POOR LAW REFORM _By John E. Healy, Editor of the "Irish Times."_ XIX. IRISH EDUCATION UNDER THE UNION _By Godfrey Locker Lampson, M.P._ XX. THE PROBLEM OF TRANSIT AND TRANSPORT IN IRELAND _By an Irish Railway Director._ INTRODUCTION BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD CARSON, M.P.