lf. The
question of Home Rule was being submitted, not, as heretofore, to a
limited constituency, but to the whole Irish people. Till their will had
been constitutionally declared at the polls it was not proper that
Englishmen or Scotchmen should anticipate its tenour. We should even
have been accused, had we volunteered our opinions, of seeking to affect
the result in Ireland, and, not only of playing for the Irish vote in
Great Britain, as we saw the Tories doing, but of prejudicing the
chances of those Liberal candidates who, in Irish constituencies, were
competing with extreme Nationalists. A third reason was that most
English and Scotch Liberals did not know how far their own dispositions
towards Home Rule were shared by their leaders. Mr. Gladstone's
declaration in his Midlothian address was no doubt a decided intimation
of his views, and was certainly understood by some (as by myself) to
imply the grant to Ireland of a Parliament; but, strong as its words
were, its importance does not seem to have been fully appreciated at the
moment. And the opinions of a statesman whose unequalled Irish
experience and elevated character gave him a weight only second to that
of Mr. Gladstone--I mean Lord Spencer--had not been made known. We had
consequently no certainty that there were leaders prepared to give
prompt effect to the views we entertained. Lastly, we were not prepared
with a practical scheme of self-government for Ireland. The Nationalist
members had propounded none which we could either adopt or criticize.
Convinced as we were that Home Rule would come and must come, we felt
the difficulties surrounding every suggestion that had yet been made,
and had not hammered out any plan which we could lay before the electors
as approved by Liberal opinion.[7] We were forced to confine ourselves
to generalities.

Whether it would have been better for us to have done our thinking and
scheme-making in public, and thereby have sooner forced the details of
the problem upon the attention of the country, need not now be inquired.
Any one can now see that something was lost by the omission. But those
who censure a course that has actually been taken usually fail to
estimate the evils that would have followed from the taking of the
opposite course. Such evils might in this instance have been as great as
those we have encountered.

I have spoken of the importance we attached to the decision of Ireland
itself, and of the attitude of