a
hostile domination. Both were ignorant of the condition of their
country. Both cared so little about Irish questions that nothing less
than deeds of violence out of doors or obstruction within doors could
secure their attention. Concessions had to be extorted from both by the
same devices; Coercion might be feared at the hands of both. Hence the
Irish party was resolved to treat both parties alike, and play off the
one against the other in the interests of Ireland alone, using the
questions which divide Englishmen and Scotchmen merely as levers
whereby to effect their own purposes, because themselves quite
indifferent to the substantial merits of those questions. To us new
members this was an alarming revelation. We found that the House of
Commons consisted of two distinct and dissimilar bodies: a large British
body (including some few Tories and Liberals from Ireland), which,
though it was distracted by party quarrels, really cared for the welfare
of the country and the dignity of the House, and would set aside its
quarrels in the presence of a great emergency; and a small Irish body,
which, though it spoke the English language, was practically foreign,
felt no interest in, no responsibility for, the business of Britain or
the Empire, and valued its place in the House only as a means of making
itself so disagreeable as to obtain its release. When we had grasped
this fact, we began to reflect on its causes and conjecture its effects.
We had read of the same things in the newspapers, but what a difference
there is between reading a drama in your study and seeing it acted on
the stage! We realized what Irish feeling was when we heard these angry
cries, and noted how appeals that would have affected English partisans
fell on deaf ears. I remember how one night in the summer of 1880, when
the Irish members kept us up very late over some trivial Bill of theirs,
refusing to adjourn till they had extorted terms, a friend, sitting
beside me, said, "See how things come round. They keep us out of bed
till five o'clock in the morning because our ancestors bullied theirs
for six centuries." And we saw that the natural relations of an
Executive, even a Liberal Executive, to the Irish members were those of
strife. Whose fault it was we were unable to decide. Perhaps the
Government was too stiff; perhaps the members were vexatious. Anyhow,
this strife was evidently the normal state of things, wholly unlike that
which existed between