a desire for local independence; while the
establishment of Home Rule is a necessary condition to the effectual
removal of agrarian disturbances in Ireland.

6. That precedent is in favour of granting Home Rule to Ireland--_e.g._
the success of the new Constitution in Austria-Hungary, and the happy
effects resulting from the establishment of the Dominion of Canada.

7. That the particular form of Home Rule granted is comparatively
immaterial.

8. That the Home Rule Bill of 1886 may readily be amended in such a
manner as to satisfy all real and unpartisan objectors.

9. That the Land Bill of 1886 is the best that has ever been devised,
having regard to the advantages offered to the new Irish Government, the
landlord, and the tenant.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 60: Reprinted by permission, with certain omissions, from the
_Contemporary Review_, August, 1887.]

[Footnote 61: "Home Rule and Imperial Unity:" _Contemporary Review_,
March, 1887.]

[Footnote 62: Mill on _Representative Government_, p. 310.]

[Footnote 63: See _Statesman's Year-Book_: Switzerland and Germany.]

[Footnote 64: Heeren's _Political System of Europe_, p. 152.]

[Footnote 65: _Memoirs of Count Beust_, vol. i., Introduction, p.
xliii.]

[Footnote 66: _Statesman's Year-Book._]

[Footnote 67: The Emperor of Austria is the head of the empire, with the
title of King in Hungary. Austria-Hungary is treated as a federal, not
as an imperial union, on the ground that Austria was never rightfully a
dominant community over Hungary.]

[Footnote 68: _Representative Government_, p. 295.]

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE IRISH QUESTION[69]

BY JAMES BRYCE, M.P.

For half a century or more no question of English domestic politics has
excited so much interest outside England as that question of resettling
her relations with Ireland, which was fought over in the last
Parliament, and still confronts the Parliament that has lately been
elected. Apart from its dramatic interest, apart from its influence on
the fortune of parties, and its effect on the imperial position of Great
Britain, it involves so many large principles of statesmanship, and
raises so many delicate points of constitutional law, as to deserve the
study of philosophical thinkers no less than of practical politicians in
every free country.

The circumstances which led to the introduction of the Government of
Ireland Bill, in April, 1886, are familiar to Americans as well as
Englishmen