der
and moulder away, unremoved, unrepaired.... To make room for these
large-scale operations, evictions must go on, and as the process
proceeds the numbers must be augmented of those who are unfit to
work for hire and unable to leave the country. The poor must be
made poorer; many now self-supporting made dependent. Pauperism must
spread, and the burden of poor rates be vastly increased. If the
greatest good of the greatest number be the fundamental principle of
good government, this is not the direction in which the state should
seek to accomplish the regeneration of Ireland. The development of the
resources of the land ought to be made compatible with the improvement
of the condition of the people.'

CHAPTER XXV.

CONCLUSION--AN APPEAL TO ENGLISHMEN.

The difficulty of understanding the case of Ireland is proverbial.
Its most enlightened friends in England and Scotland are often charged
with 'gross ignorance of the country.' They might excuse themselves by
answering, that when they seek instruction from Irishmen, one native
instructor is sure to contradict the other. Yet there must be some
point of view from which all sides of the Irish question can be seen,
some light in which the colours are not confused, the picture is not
exaggerated, the features are not distorted. Every nation has its
idiosyncrasy, proceeding from race, religion, laws, institutions,
climate, and other circumstances; and this idiosyncrasy may be the
key of its history. In Ireland three or four nationalities are bound
together in one body politic; and it is the conflict of their several
idiosyncrasies which perplexes statesmen, and constitutes the main
difficulty of the Irish problem. The blood of different races is
mingled, and no doubt greatly modified by ages of intercourse.
But _religion_ is an abiding force. The establishment of religious
equality in Ireland is a glorious achievement, enough in itself to
immortalise any statesman. It is a far greater revolution than was
effected by the Emancipation Act, and more to the credit of the chief
actor; because, while Mr. Gladstone did spontaneously what he
firmly believed to be right in principle. Sir Robert Peel did, from
necessity, what he as firmly believed was wrong in principle. But no
reasonable man expected that the disestablishment of the Church would
settle all Irish questions; in fact, it but clears the way for the
settlement of some of the most important and urgent. It makes