ction, observation and research; the conclusions to which he comes
for the settlement of the financial and other details of Home Rule
ought to receive most careful consideration as valuable contributions
to the discussion of the subject. But, of course, they must not be
assumed necessarily to be mine or to be those that will be adopted in
the Government Bill.

But I agree with him entirely that Home Rule is necessary to heal
bitterness in Ireland, and to effect that reconciliation without which
there cannot be real union: that it is necessary to relieve Parliament
at Westminster and to set it free for work that concerns the United
Kingdom as a whole or the Empire: in other words, that there is a
problem to be solved, and that the first step in solving it must be
Irish Home Rule in a form that opens the way for Federal Home Rule.

In the autumn of 1910 a considerable part, at any rate, of the
Conservative Party seemed ready to admit the need for some solution:
to-day they have apparently drifted back to the barren position of
opposing all proposals for Home Rule: if they were to render this
solution impossible, they would but make the problem more urgent.

EDWARD GREY.

_February, 1912._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
THE HOME RULE CASE 3
The Case that Does Not Change:
(i.) The Sea.
(ii.) The Race.
(iii.) The Creed.

CHAPTER II.
THE HOME RULE CASE 19
The Case that Has Changed and is Now Stronger:
(i.) The Councils and
(ii.) The Land.

CHAPTER III.
THE HOME RULE CASE 35
The Case that Has Changed--(_continued_):
(i.) The Congested Districts.
(ii.) The Board of Agriculture.
(iii.) Old-Age Pensions.
(iv.) The Universities.

CHAPTER IV.
THE HOME RULE PLAN 47
The Nineteenth Century Bills and the Bill of 1912.

CHAPTER V.
HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES 63
Ulster.

CHAPTER VI.
HOME RULE DIFFICULTIES 77
Rome Rule _or_ Home Rule?

CHAPTER VII.
HOME RULE IN HISTORY 89
Five Centuries of Limited Home Rule (1265-1780).

CHAPTER VIII.
HOME RULE IN HISTORY 99
Grattan's Parliament.

CHAPTER IX.
HOME RULE IN THE WORLD