Rule as
federalism are unconscious expressions of distrust of Irish sincerity or
intelligence thrown into the form of prophecy, and prophets, as we all
know, cannot be refuted. For instance, "the changes necessitated by
federalism would all tend to weaken the power of Great Britain" (Dicey,
p. 173). The question of the command of the army could not be arranged;
the Irish army could not be depended on by the Crown (p. 174); the
central Government would be feeble against foreign aggression, and the
Irish Parliament would give aid to a foreign enemy (pp. 176-7).
Federalism would aggravate or increase instead of diminishing the actual
Irish disloyalty to the Crown (pp. 179-80); the Irish expectations of
material prosperity from Home Rule are baseless or grossly exaggerated
(p. 182); the probability is, it would produce increased poverty and
hardship; there would be frequent quarrels between the two countries
over questions of nullification, secession, and federal taxation (p.
184); neither side would acquiesce in the decision either of the Privy
Council or of any other tribunal on these questions; Home Rulers would
be the first to resist these decisions (p. 185). Irish federation "would
soon generate a demand that the whole British Empire should be turned
into a Confederacy" (p. 188). Finally, as "the one prediction which may
be made with absolute confidence," "federalism would not generate the
goodwill between England and Ireland which, could it be produced, would
be an adequate compensation even for the evils and inconveniences of a
federal system" (p. 191).

Now I do not myself believe these things, but what else can any advocate
of Home Rule say in answer to them? They are in their very nature the
utterances of a prophet--an able, acute, and fair-minded prophet, I
grant, but still a prophet--and before a prophet the wisest man has to
be silent, or content himself by answering in prophecy also. What makes
the sceptical frame of mind in which Mr. Dicey approaches the Home Rule
question so important is not simply that it probably represents that of
a very large body of educated Englishmen, but that it is one in which a
federal system cannot be produced. Faith, hope, and charity are
political as well as social virtues. The minute you leave the region of
pure despotism and try any form of government in which the citizen has
in the smallest degree to co-operate in the execution of the laws, you
have need of these virtues at e