and
all of them under the Gladstonian Constitution certain to be the source
of justifiable dissatisfaction. To the ingenuity of the plan proposed by
Mr. Gladstone's Ministry hostile critics have given insufficient praise.
But the essential unreality which this ingenuity has concealed has not
even yet met with due condemnation. Since the day when the National
Assembly of France presented the brand-new French Constitution to the
acceptance of Louis XVI. no form of government has ever been seriously
proposed for adoption by an intelligent people so radically unworkable
as that Gladstonian Constitution which has been instinctively rejected
by the good sense of the British Parliament. The Constitution of France
lasted out two years; to a jurist it may appear conceivable, though
hardly probable, that by the vigorous aid of the British Parliament the
new Constitution for the United Kingdom might have lasted for as long a
period.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Compare Mr. Gladstone's speech of 8th April, 1886, '_The Times_
Parliamentary Debates,' pp. 130, 131; and Mr. Gladstone's speech of 13th
April, _ibid._, pp. 255, 256.

[30] Compare _ibid._, pp. 130, 132.

[31] Compare the following expressions in Mr. Gladstone's
speeches:--"The essential conditions of any plan that Parliament can be
asked or could be expected to entertain are, in my opinion, these:--The
unity of the Empire must not be placed in jeopardy; the safety and
welfare of the whole--if there is an unfortunate conflict, which I do
not believe--the welfare and security of the whole must be preferred to
the security and advantage of the part. The political equality of the
three countries must be maintained. They stand by statute on a footing
of absolute equality, and that footing ought not to be altered or
brought into question. There should be what I will at present term an
equitable distribution of Imperial burdens. Next I introduce a provision
which may seem to be exceptional, but which in the peculiar
circumstances of Ireland, whose history unhappily has been one long
chain of internal controversies as well as of difficulties external, is
necessary in order that there may be reasonable safeguards for the
minority. I am asked why there should be safeguards for the minority.

* * * * *

"I have spoken now of the essential conditions of a good plan for
Ireland, and I add only this--that in order to be a good plan it must be
a plan promisin