In this same region, too, the rout of Munro by Nugent at Ballinahinch practically ended the insurrection of 1798.
There are good reasons in the physical geography of the British Islands for this controlling influence of Ulster over the affairs of Ireland, which it seems to me a serious mistake to overlook.
The author of a brief but very hard-headed and practical letter on the pacification of Ireland, which appeared in the _Times_ newspaper in 1886, while the air was thrilling with rumours of Mr.Gladstone's impending appearance as the champion of "Home Rule," carried, I remember, to the account of St.George's Channel "nine-tenths of the troubles, religious, political, and social, under which Ireland has laboured for seven centuries." I cannot help thinking he hit the nail on the head; and St.George's Channel does not divide Ulster from Scotland.
From Donaghadee, which has an excellent harbour, the houses on the Scottish coast can easily be made out in clear weather.

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and it is as hard to see how, even with the consent of Ulster, the independence of Ireland could be maintained against the interests and the will of Scotland, as it is easy to see why Leinster, Munster, and Connaught have been so difficult of control and assimilation by England.

To dream of establishing the independence of Ireland against the will of Ulster appears to me to be little short of madness.
At Moira, which stands very prettily above the Ulster Canal, a small army of people returning from a day in the country to Belfast came upon us and trebled the length of our train.

We picked up more at Lisburn, where stands the Cathedral Church of Jeremy Taylor, the "Shakespeare of divines." Here my only companion in the compartment from Dublin left me, a most kindly, intelligent Ulster man, who had very positive views as to the political situation.

He much commended the recent discourse in Scotland of a Presbyterian minister, who spoke of the Papal Decree as "pouring water on a drowned mouse," a remark which led me to elicit the fact that he had never seen either Clare or Kerry; and he was very warm in his admiration of Mr.Chamberlain.He told me, what I had heard from many other men of Ulster, that the North had armed itself thoroughly when the Home Rule business began with Mr.Gladstone.