18 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



to pass a resolution protesting against Home Rule. 

 Sir John seconded the resolution in the following 

 words : 



We, in the City of London, stand shoulder to shoulder 

 with the gallant men of Ulster. London is not only the 

 greatest commercial but the greatest manufacturing city 

 in the world, and the merchants, manufacturers, and 

 bankers of London concur with those of Liverpool and 

 Manchester and Birmingham, of Glasgow, of Belfast, 

 aye, and of Dublin also, in condemning and denouncing 

 this Bill. Our opponents sometimes call themselves a 

 party of progress. They are nothing of the kind. They 

 are not progressives ; they are not even stationary. 

 They wish us to go back a thousand years. It is not a 

 Bill for the better government of Ireland, and it attempts 

 to press on England against her will a Constitution 

 which we detest and to which we will not submit. Eng- 

 land has sent a majority of sixty-six members to oppose 

 Home Rule, and if the Principles of the Bill had not been 

 concealed from the country the majority would have 

 been larger still. Even now it is only passed by the 

 undue number of votes given to the South and West of 

 Ireland. London has a larger population than Ireland, 

 London contributes more to the Imperial revenue, and 

 yet while London has only 62 members, Ireland has 

 104. If Ireland had no more than we have, where 

 would Mr. Gladstone's majority be ? Liberal Unionists 

 are sometimes called traitors and deserters. There may 

 be treason somewhere, but it is not among the Unionists. 

 We have not deserted our principles or betrayed our 

 country. 



No doubt we are face to face with a great national 

 crisis, but we are confident in the wisdom and justice of 

 our cause. We doubt not that England will be true to 

 herself, and though we must strain every nerve, the 

 victory will be ours, and we shall feel one and all with 

 pride that we have done what we can to prevent what 

 Mr. Gladstone once called " the dismemberment of the 

 Empire." 



My Lord Mayor, I will conclude in the noble words of 

 Milton, " Oh, Thou, who of thy free grace didst build up 

 this Britannic Empire to a glorious and enviable height, 



