Then, Nationalists are by training and instinct suspicious of the Castle. Irishmen are seldom cowards, but it is only necessary to bring a charge of sycophancy against an Irishman to make him forswear the Castle and all its works. It is, in his opinion, the greatest insult you can offer him. You may question the honour of his ancestors, doubt his honour, or even deride his alleged sense {330} of humour--all these things will leave him cold; but hint that he wants a job, sneer at him because you imagine he is hankering after the fleshpots of Castle Yard or the messes of the Viceregal Lodge, and then take steps to insure your safety. This weapon has proved most effective in the hands of Nationalist writers and journalists, though it has not always succeeded in preventing men holding Nationalist opinions from serving their country on the bench or in the administration of the Government of the land. English ministers possess more patronage than the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and jobbery is ever rampant in London; but the business of the metropolis is not stopped in order that the multitude may hold up their hands in horror at the action of the jobbers. Happily, England's strength is not in its Civil Service. In Ireland it is different, and whereas the ambition of every family was to have a priest amongst its sons, now a Civil Servant within its ranks is considered more desirable. And the Lord-Lieutenant, as Chief Patron, is the natural prey of the eager, and hopeful, and the disappointed. Not since the mayoralty of T. D. Sullivan in 1886--during Lord Aberdeen's previous term of office--has the Mansion House in Dawson Street known the presence of a viceroy. Successive Lord Mayors of Dublin have held aloof from the Government--some from conviction, the majority frightened by the bogie of sycophancy. Amateur politicians continue to practise the art of debate on the floors and in the galleries of the City Hall, and their brethren in a more sophisticated manner {331} demonstrated their statesmanlike qualities in Westminster; while the Lord-Lieutenant, the symbol of England's despotic rule, mingles with the aristocratic and official sets, which are mainly Tory. In fact, the Nationalists are afraid to indicate loyalty by accepting the hospitality of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and, curiously enough, the extreme Unionists adopt precisely the same course when a Liberal Government is in power. [Sidenote: Welcoming the Lord-Lieutenant]