truction, by the use of
dynamite. A century of reform has given us Mr. Parnell instead of
Grattan, and it is more than possible that Mr. Parnell may be succeeded
by leaders in whose eyes Mr. Davitt's policy may appear to be tainted
with moderation. No doubt, in each case the failure of good measures
admits, like every calamity in public or private life, of explanation,
and after the event it is easy to see why, for example, the Poor Law,
when extended to Ireland, did not produce even the good effects such as
they are which in England are to be set against its numerous evils; or
why an emigration of unparalleled proportions has diminished population
without much diminishing poverty; why the disestablishment of the
Anglican Church has increased rather than diminished the hostility to
England of the Catholic priesthood; or why two Land Acts have not
contented Irish farmers. It is easy enough, in short, and this without
having any recourse to theory of race, and without attributing to
Ireland either more or less of original sin than falls to the lot of
humanity, to see how it is that imperfect statesmanship--and all
statesmanship, it should be remembered, is imperfect--has failed in
obtaining good results at all commensurate with its generally good
intentions. Failure, however, is none the less failure because its
causes admit of analysis. It is no defence to bankruptcy that an
insolvent can, when brought before the Court, lucidly explain the errors
which resulted in disastrous speculations. The failure of English
statesmanship, explain it as you will, has produced the one last and
greatest evil which misgovernment can cause. It has created hostility to
the law in the minds of the people. The law cannot work in Ireland
because the classes whose opinion in other countries supports the
actions of the courts, are in Ireland, even when not law-breakers, in
full sympathy with law-breakers."[54]

No Home Ruler has described the evils of English misrule in Ireland with
such vigour as this.

"Bad administration, religious persecution, above all, a thoroughly
vicious land tenure, accompanied by such sweeping confiscations as to
make it, at any rate, a plausible assertion that all land in Ireland has
during the course of Irish history been confiscated at least thrice
over, are admittedly some of the causes, if they do not constitute the
whole cause, of the one immediate difficulty which perplexes the policy
of England. This is noth