The  writ(»rs  of  the  Nation  had  attempted  the  difficult  and  all  but  im-
possible task,  in  a  country  like  Ireland,  of  treating  Catholic  and  Pro-
testant interests  on  the  same  footing,  and  in  return  had  got  assailed  as
infidels ;  the  other  Repeal  papers  were  for  the  most  part  as  uniformly
Catholic  in  their  sympathies  as  if  they  were  exclusively  sectarian  organs,
and  they  offended  and  rei>clled  Protestants.  The  Conservative  journals
were  strongly  unionist,  and  strongly  and  even  offensively  anti-Catholic.
