further, just because it is a
democracy, may, like the democracy of America, enforce with unflinching
firmness laws which, representing the deliberate will of the people, are
supported by the vast majority of the citizens of the United Kingdom.
The English democracy, because it is a democracy, may also with a good
conscience destroy the remnants of feudal institutions, and all systems
of land tenure found unsuitable to the wants of the Irish people. Nor,
though the crisis be difficult, are there features lacking in the
tendencies of the modern world which in the United Kingdom as in the
United States and in the Swiss Confederacy favour every effort to uphold
the political unity of the State. Whatever be the difficulties (and they
are many) of maintaining the Union, not in form only but in reality, the
policy is favoured no less by the current of English history, than by
the tendencies of modern civilization. It preserves that unity of the
State which is essential to the authority of England and to the
maintenance of the Empire. It provides, as matters now stand, the only
means of giving legal protection to a large body of loyal British
subjects. It is the refusal not only to abdicate legitimate power, but
(what is of far more consequence) to renounce the fulfilment of
imperative duties. Nor does Union imply uniformity. Unity of
Government--equality of rights--diversity of institutions,--these are
the watchwords for all Unionists. To attain these objects may be beyond
our power, and the limit to power is the limit to responsibility. Still,
whatever may be the difficulties, or even the disadvantages, of
maintaining the Union, it undoubtedly has in its favour not only all the
recommendations which must belong to a policy of rational conservatism,
but also these two decisive advantages--that it does sustain the
strength of the United Kingdom, and that it does not call for any
dereliction of duty.

Separation, or in other words the national independence of Ireland, is
an idea which has not entered into the practical consideration of
Englishmen. The evils which it threatens are patent: it at the same
moment diminishes the means of Great Britain and increases the calls
upon her resources. It lowers the fame of the country, and plants by the
side of England a foreign, it may be a hostile, neighbour; it involves
the desertion of loyal fellow-citizens who have trusted in the good
faith of England. Yet, on the other hand, the mate