e
allies and friends of conspirators and boycotters) the morality of
English public life has been undermined, by the presence at Westminster
of Irish members who, regarding the English Parliament as an alien
power, weaken its action, despise its traditions, and degrade its
character. One remedy for Irish miseries and for English dangers has not
been tried. No English statesman before Mr. Gladstone (it is urged) has
offered to Ireland the one thing which Ireland desires--the boon or
right of parliamentary independence. Be the desire for Home Rule
reasonable or not, it is Home Rule for which Ireland longs. Ireland
feels herself a nation. Satisfy then Ireland's wish, meet the feeling of
nationality, and Ireland will be at rest. This experiment must at least
be tried; its perils must be risked. The present situation is
intolerable, the concession of Home Rule to Ireland is a necessity.

This, to the best of my apprehension, is the Gladstonian argument. My
aim has certainly been to state it fairly and in its full force.

Is the argument valid? Is the plea of necessity made out? The answer may
be given without hesitation. It is not. The allegations on which the
whole train of reasoning rests are tainted by exaggeration or
misapprehension, and the allegations, even if taken as true, do not
establish the required inference; the premises are unsound, and the
premises do not support the conclusion.

The premises are unsound.

The Gladstonians are far too much of parliamentary formalists. Their
imagination and their reason are impressed by the strength in the House
of Commons of the Irish party. The eighty votes from Ireland daunt them.
But wise men must look behind votes at facts. The eighty Irish Home
Rulers are, it is true, no light matter, even when allowance is made
for the way in which corruption and intimidation vitiate the vote of
Ireland. But their voice is not the voice of the Irish people; it is at
most the mutter or the clamour of a predominant Irish faction. It is the
voice of Ireland in the same sense in which a century ago the shouts or
yells of the Jacobin Club were the voice of France. To any one who looks
behind the forms of the constitution to the realities of life, the voice
of Irish wealth, of Irish intelligence, and of Irish loyalty is at least
as important as the voice of Irish sedition or discontent. The eighty
votes must in any case be reckoned morally at not more than sixty, for
to this number they wo