the judgment of all just persons, fatal to the line of
reasoning which my readers are invited to pursue. The objection is,
however, so far from being valid as to present my whole method of
reasoning in a false light. A main reason why an Englishman does well to
look at Home Rule from an English point of view is, that this mode of
dealing with the adjustment of the possibly opposed interests of England
and Ireland is (paradoxical though the assertion may sound) both the
least irritating and in itself the fairest method of meeting the demands
of Irish Home Rulers; though--and this is the one certainly good result
which has arisen from the changed attitude towards Home Rule of Mr.
Gladstone and his followers--these demands may now happily be dealt with
as claims put forward not specially by Irishmen, but by a political
party which includes large numbers of Scotchmen and Englishmen. The
assertion, however, that to look at Home Rule from an English point of
view is the way to minimise irritation, and to deal fairly with a topic
specially requiring fair treatment, requires some explanation.

Experience of the world teaches every man that in complicated affairs of
private life, involving questions, say, both of money and of sentiment,
nothing so surely prevents quarrels as to separate in the clearest
manner possible matters of business from matters of feeling. In
determining a dispute between _A._ and _B._, a great step is gained when
a friend induces each of the parties first to state clearly his exact
legal rights and his exact pecuniary interest, and only when these facts
are made clear to consider what are the concessions fairly to be
demanded from him as a matter, not of right, but of liberality. Nothing,
again, is plainer in the conduct of controversies between man and man,
than that if _A._ intends to exact his full legal rights from _B._, the
most irritating defence of _A.'s_ conduct is his pretence of acting
solely with a view to _B.'s_ own good; and that, on the other hand, no
manner of enforcing _A.'s_ claims against _B._ causes so little
unnecessary vexation to _B._ as for _A._ to say openly that he demands
his rights because they are his rights, and because to demand them is
his interest. Here, if nowhere else, the rules which apply to private
disputes apply also to political controversies. If millions of
Englishmen refuse a request made by millions of Irishmen, by far the
least irritating form of refusal is open a