CHAPTER XIV.
ULSTER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Let us, then, endeavour to get rid of the pernicious delusions about race and religion in dealing with this Irish land question.

Identity of race and substantial agreement in religion did not prevent the Ulster landlords from uprooting their tenants when they fancied it was their interest to banish them--to substitute grazing for tillage, and cattle for a most industrious and orderly peasantry.
The letters of Primate Boulter contain much valuable information on the state of Ulster in the last century, and furnish apt illustrations of the land question, which, I fancy, will be new and startling to many readers.

Boulter was lord primate of Ireland from 1724 to 1738.
He was thirteen times one of the lords justices.

As an Englishman and a good churchman, he took care of the English interests and of the establishment.

The letters were written in confidence to Sir Robert Walpole and other ministers of state, and were evidently not intended for publication.