m the
obscurities of modern draughtsmanship. But on two points they tried the
experiment of keeping real perils out of sight by omitting to refer to
them. "Slave" and "slavery" are words not to be found in the
Constitution of the United States. What (if any) was the right of a
State to retire from the Union, was a matter purposely left open for the
interpretation of future generations. The Abolition movement, the
Fugitive Slave Law, the War of Secession tell the result of trying to
ignore perils or problems which it is not easy to face or to solve.

[Sidenote: And to Ireland.]

The last disappointment of Englishmen would be to find that Home Rule
had not satisfied Ireland. For to Irishmen no less than to Englishmen
the Constitution must bring disappointment and inconvenience.

That the Gladstonian Constitution cannot satisfy Ireland is all but
certain.

To say this is not to imply that its acceptance by Irish Home Rulers is
dishonest. In their eyes it is a move in the right direction; they
exaggerate, as their English allies underrate, the freedom of action
which the Constitution offers to Ireland. It cannot, as already pointed
out, by any possibility remove the admitted causes of Irish discontent.
It cannot tempt capital towards Ireland, but it may easily drive capital
away from her shores; it cannot diminish poverty; it cannot in its
direct effect assuage religious bigotry; it cannot of itself remove
agrarian discontent. The Land Purchase Bill, even when discarded,
remains an involuntary exposure of the futility of the Gladstonian
Constitution, and of the unsoundness of the principle on which the
demand for Home Rule rests. No friend of Italy ever suggested that
Italian independence should be accompanied by a loan from Austria to the
Italian Kingdom. For the principle of nationality was the true source of
Italian disaffection. If in dealing with Ireland we must calm agrarian
misery before satisfying national aspirations, this necessity is all but
a confession that Irish unrest is due far more to desire for a change in
the land laws than to passionate longing for national independence. I do
not doubt that the spirit of nationality has some, though probably a
small, part in the production of Irish discontent. But the Gladstonian
Constitution is unfortunately so devised as to outrage quite as much as
it soothes national sentiment. The tribute will affect every Irishman in
his pride no less than in his purse. Can any