On the merits of Home Rule _Punch_ is rather non-committal, and speaks with more than one voice. The secession of the Liberal Unionists impressed him greatly; but he was bitterly antagonistic to the Ulster extremists, witness this epigram printed in May:-- _Lucus a non Lucendo_ Loyal? Nay, Ulster, you, for very shame Should cede your long monopoly of that name. Loyal--to whom--to what? To power, to pelf, To place, to privilege, in a word, to _self_. They who assume, absorb, control, enjoy all, Must find it vastly pleasant to be "loyal." Lord Randolph Churchill's famous jingle: "Ulster will fight. Ulster will be right," inspired a prophetic forecast of the result of such action, in which Ulster does fight and is defeated:-- The battle had been severe, but it was over at last. Belfast was taken. Derry was in ruins. Everywhere the Orange faction had been outnumbered and worsted. The reverse was crushing and complete. "We shall now," said the General commanding the National forces, "be suffered, perhaps, to hold our Parliament on College Green in peace." He turned to a batch of captured officers as he spoke. They were a motley crew. Among them figured several wearing the Queen's uniform, while here and there stood some distinguished sympathizer with the beaten cause, who had thrown in his lot to support rebellion against Queen and Empire. Among these latter a scion of a Ducal House and former well-known Member of the House of Commons, was weeping over a broken drumhead. The General singled him out, and beckoned him to approach. He drew near, surlily: "Well, my Lord," continued the Commander, in a tone of banter. "How about your prophecy? Ulster will fight. Ulster will be right. Ulster has fought. Ha! Ha!" "And she has been wrong!" was the submissive and humble reply. [Sidenote: _Lord Randolph at the Tresury_] This squib was written before the rejection of the Home Rule Bill, a result which _Punch_, or the writer, probably did not anticipate. The accuracy of the forecast, however, remains still to be tested.