al party in Ireland, and to widen the political differences
between the richer and poorer classes in the country. The result of this
has been, that not only have even the best landlords gradually lost
their power in Parliamentary elections and on elective boards, but the
Government, which greatly relied on them for support, has become
isolated.

The system of centralization is felt all over the country. It was the
cause of weakness in the disturbed years of 1880 and 1881, and, although
the Irish Executive strengthened themselves by placing officers over
several counties, on whom they devolved a great deal of responsibility,
they did not by these steps meet the real difficulty, which was that
everything that went wrong, whether as to police or magisterial
decisions, was attributed to the management of the Castle.

In this country, local authorities and benches of magistrates, quite
independent of the Home Office, are held responsible for mistakes in
police action or irregularities in local justice. The consequence is
that there is a strong buffer to protect the character and power of the
Home Office.

The absence of such protection in Ireland obviously has a very
prejudicial effect on the permanent influence and popularity of the
Irish Government. But as long as our system of government from England
exists, this centralization cannot be avoided, for it would not be
possible to transfer the responsibility of the police to local
representative bodies, as they are too much opposed to the landlords and
the Government to be trusted when strong party differences arise; nor,
for the same reason, would it be possible to fall back on local men to
administer justice. The fact is, that, out of the Protestant part of
Ulster, the Irish Government receives the cordial support of only the
landed proprietors, and a part of the upper middle classes in the towns.
The feeling of the mass of the people has been so long against them that
no change in the direction of trust in any centralized government of
anti-national character can be expected.

It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to find any Municipal
Council, Boards of Guardians, or Local Boards, in Leinster, Munster, or
Connaught, whose members do not consist of a majority of Nationalists.
At nearly all such assemblies, whenever any important political movement
takes place in the country, or when the Irish Government take any action
which is displeasing to the Nationalists, re