ith distrust and suspicion. There
is not one spark of generosity in the whole thing from beginning to
end. Better have no bill at all. For as a business man, I foresee that
the passing of any such bill would lead to a complete upset of trade.
We should have a most tremendous row. The safeguards would only invite
to rebellion. Tell a man he must not have something, must not do
something, and that is the very thing he wants to do. He might not
have thought of it if you had not mentioned it; but the moment you
point it out, and particularise the forbidden fruit, from that very
moment he is inspired with a very particular wish for that above all
things. So with a nation. We want our independence. We want to do as
we like. Otherwise, why ask for a Parliament? Gladstone says, Yes, my
pretty dear, it shall have its ickety-pickety Parliament; it shall
have its plaything. And it shall ridy-pidy in the coachy-poachy too;
all round the parky-warky with the cock-a-doodle-doo. But it mustn't
touch! Or if it touches it mustn't be rough, for its plaything will
break so easily. We don't want this tomfoolery, nor to be treated like
children. We want a real Parliament, and not one that can be pulled up
every five minutes by London. For if the English Parliament have the
power to veto our wishes, where's the difference? We might have just
as well stayed as we were. That's perfectly clear.

"So that I for one will be glad when the farce is over. The present
bill at best was but a fraud, a tampering with the national sentiment.
And I am beginning to think that we have no chance of a National
Legislature until the coming of the next great Irishman. I am not so
disappointed or broken-hearted as you might suppose. For the prospect
of an Irish Parliament under present auspices is not very enticing.
The country might be made to look ridiculous, and the thing, by
bursting up in some absurd way, might make a repetition of the attempt
impossible for a century. I would rather wait for a better bill, and
also for better men to work it. We are not proud of the Irish members.
But we didn't want Tories, and all the propertied men are Tories. What
were we to do? We know the want of standing and breeding which marks
most of our men, but we did the best we could, and came within an ace
of succeeding. Let me tell you the exact feeling of the respectable
Home Rule party of Ireland at this moment.

"Having exerted ourselves with enthusiasm, and having underg