cial Governments,
exercising powers greater than those of an English county, but not so
great as those of an American State. The advantage of such a form of
government is that, without weakening the supremacy of the empire or of
the central local power, it admits of considerable diversities being
made in the details of provincial government, where local peculiarities
and antecedents render it undesirable to make a more complete
assimilation of the Governments of the various provinces.

Materials have now been collected which will enable the reader to judge
of the expediency or inexpediency of the course taken by Mr. Gladstone's
Government in dealing with Ireland. Three alternatives were open to
them--

1. To let matters alone.
2. To pass a Coercion Bill.
3. To change the government of Ireland, and at
the same time to pass a Land Bill.

The two last measures are combined under the head of one alternative, as
it will be shown in the sequel that no effective Land Bill can be passed
without granting Home Rule in Ireland.

Now, the short answer to the first alternative is, that no party in the
State--Conservative, Whig, Radical, Unionist, Home Ruler,
Parnellite--thought it possible to leave things alone. That something
must be done was universally admitted.

The second alternative has found favour with the present Government, and
certainly is a better example of the triumph of hope over experience,
than even the proverbial second marriage.

Eighty-six years have elapsed since the Union. During the first
thirty-two years only eleven years, and during the last fifty-four years
only two years have been free from special repressive legislation; yet
the agitation for repeal of the Union, and general discontent, are more
violent in 1887 than in any one of the eighty-six previous years. In
the name of common-sense, is there any reason for supposing that the
Coercion Bill of 1887 will have a better or more enduring effect than
its numerous predecessors? The _prima facie_ case is at all events in
favour of the contention that, when so many trials of a certain remedy
have failed, it would be better not to try the same remedy again, but to
have recourse to some other medicine. What, then, was the position of
Mr. Gladstone's Government at the close of the election of 1885? What
were the considerations presented to them as supreme supervisors and
guardians of the British Empire? They found that vast colonial empir