pire broad based upon the British Bible and the English navy, and
maintained by a very inflexible interpretation of the one and a very
skilful handling of the other, rests upon a sunk foundation that is
older than both and will surely bring both to final shipwreck.

The British Empire is founded not upon the British Bible or the
British dreadnought but upon Ireland. The empire that began upon an
island, ravaged, sacked and plundered shall end on an island, "which
whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil, or the influence
of the stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of
her reformation, or that He reserveth her in this unquiet state still
for some secret scourge which shall by her come unto England, it is
hard to be known but yet much to be feared." Thus Edmund Spenser
340 years ago, whose muse drew profit from an Irish estate (one of
the first fruits of empire) and who being a poet had imagination
to perceive that a day of payment must some day be called and that
the first robbed might be the first to repay. The Empire founded on
Ireland by Henry and Elizabeth Tudor has expanded into mighty things.
England deprived of Ireland resumes her natural proportions, those of
a powerful kingdom. Still possessing Ireland she is always an empire.
For just as Great Britain bars the gateways of northern and west
central Europe, to hold up at will the trade and block the ports of
every coast from the Baltic to the Bay of Biscay, so Ireland stands
between Britain and the greater seas of the west and blocks for
her the highways of the ocean. An Ireland strong, independent and
self-contained, a member of the European family of nations, restored
to her kindred, would be the surest guarantee for the healthy
development of European interests in those regions whence they are
to-day excluded by the anti-European policy of England.

The relation of Ireland to Great Britain has been in no wise
understood on the continent. The policy of England has been for
centuries to conceal the true source of her supplies and to prevent
an audit of transactions with the remoter island. As long ago as the
reign of Elizabeth Tudor this shutting off of Ireland from contact
with Europe was a settled point of English policy. The three "German
Earls" with letters from the Queen who visited Dublin in 1572 were
prevented by the Lord Deputy from seeing for themselves anything
beyond the walls of the city.[2]

[Footnote 2: This time