n, but
by the great Lord Salisbury. Speaking in 1865 as Lord Robert Cecil, he
uttered the following wise and statesmanlike summary of the policy of
the Union up to that date:--

"What is the reason that a people with so bountiful a soil,
with such enormous resources (as the Irish), lag so far behind
the English in the race? Some say that it is to be found in the
character of the Celtic race, but I look to France, and I see a
Celtic race there going forward in the path of prosperity with
most rapid strides--I believe at the present moment more
rapidly than England herself. Some people say that it is to be
found in the Roman Catholic religion; but I look to Belgium,
and there I see a people second to none in Europe, except the
English, for industry, singularly prosperous, considering the
small space of country that they occupy, having improved to the
utmost the natural resources of that country, but distinguished
among all the peoples of Europe for the earnestness and
intensity of their Roman Catholic belief. Therefore, I cannot
say that the cause of the Irish distress is to be found in the
Roman Catholic religion. An hon. friend near me says that it
arises from the Irish people listening to demagogues. I have as
much dislike to demagogues as he has, but when I look to the
Northern States of America I see there people who listen to
demagogues, but who undoubtedly have not been wanting in
material prosperity. It cannot be demagogues, Romanism, or the
Celtic race. What then is it? I am afraid that the one thing
which has been peculiar to Ireland has been the Government of
England."[62]

Nothing has occurred since 1865 to vary that judgment.

THE HOME RULE FIVE

So much for the one century of Union. What about the five of Home Rule?

"Were there no black centuries before 1800? Had Ireland no grievances?
What of the 'curse of Cromwell,' the broken 'Treaty of Limerick,' and
the penal laws?"

Thus I shall be challenged.

There were, indeed, black centuries before 1800, and black events.
Ireland endured a special share of the agony inflicted upon Europe by
the great religious struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. She suffered, perhaps, more than any other country from the
divisions of Christian Europe following on the revolt of Luther against
Rome in 1520. The statutory limitations o