the
lines of the American Constitution, and make it not only in Ireland, but
also perhaps gradually in Scotland, and even in Wales.[38] It is
unnecessary to discuss Canon MacColl's argument at length. When he
tells his readers that "the Constitution which Mr. Gladstone desires to
create in Ireland is modelled on the system existing in the great
colonies of the Empire; there are certain variations and some novelties
in the Irish scheme, but these are the lines on which it is drawn;" he
ventures a statement on which, as a lawyer, I need make but one comment.
It is a statement as erroneous and misleading as can be any assertion
made in good faith by a writer who must be presumed to have studied the
measure of which he is speaking. When the same authority asks why should
a system which imparts strength to America, to Austria, and to Germany,
disintegrate and ruin the British Empire, he raises an inquiry which
does not admit of an answer, since it assumes the identity of things
which are radically different. The system which may or may not impart
strength to Austria is no more the system which imparts strength to
America, than the system which imparts strength to England is the same
as the system which does or does not impart strength to Russia. To lump
under one head every policy which can by any straining of the terms be
brought under the heads of "Federalism" or "Home Rule," is neither more
nor less absurd than to classify together every Constitution which can
be called a monarchy.

But while I write these pages a more significant indication of this
danger has appeared. Mr. Gladstone's own method of interpreting his own
past utterances makes it the duty of his critics to weigh well not only
his direct statements, but his suggestions; and there is, I think, no
possible unfairness in construing the language of his pamphlet on the
Irish Question as an intimation that he already entertains, if he does
not favour, the idea of applying the Federal principle to Scotland and
to Wales.[39] Federalism is the solvent which, if applied to one part of
the United Kingdom, will undo the work not only of Pitt, but of Somers,
of Henry VIII., and of Edward I. Meanwhile, the one prediction which may
be made with absolute confidence is that Federalism would not generate
that goodwill between England and Ireland which, could it be produced,
would, in my judgment at least, be an adequate compensation even for the
evils and the inconveniences