ed are
to be ignored? Every English Liberal must be impressed by the fact that
the party which has tried to arrogate to itself the sole claim to be
thought Imperialist has scouted Home Rule resolutions passed again and
again by the legislatures of every one of the self-governing colonies.
It was at Montreal that Parnell was first hailed as the uncrowned king
of Ireland, and what is more, that great apostle of Imperialism, Cecil
Rhodes, so far from seeing in Home Rule the first step towards the
dismemberment of the Empire, signified his sympathy with the movement in
that direction by giving Mr. Parnell a cheque for L10,000 for the Irish
Party funds on the one condition that he would support the retention of
some of the Irish members in the Imperial Parliament, as tending in the
direction of Imperial federation.

Twenty years ago, when the present good feelings of England towards the
United States were not in existence, it was easy, as it has been since
on the occasions on which relations have been strained over the
Venezuelan and Alaskan questions, to denounce the aid granted to the
National movement by the Irish in America. To-day things are different;
these denunciations are not heard, and, moreover, as much aid and
encouragement has been forthcoming in a proportional degree from the
colonies of the British Empire as from the Republic of North America. As
a matter of fact there are twice as many people of Irish blood in the
United States as there are in Ireland, and thus, when in 1880 Congress
threw open its doors and invited Parnell to address it on the Irish
question, it was acting in accordance with the sentiments of a vast
number of the citizens of the United States.

The Government of Lord North roused the American Colonies by attempts to
rule them against their own wishes, and the result was that they secured
their independence. Austria refused self-government to Italy, and in
consequence lost its Italian territory, while Hungary, to which it
granted the boon, was retained in the dual monarchy. Spain, by refusing
autonomy to her colonies, suffered the loss of South. America, Cuba,
Puerto Rica, and the Philippines, and the action of Holland in the same
way led to the separation from it of the kingdom of the Belgians.

All these are cases in point, but the most interesting parallel is that
of Lower Canada, which, like Ireland, is Celtic and Catholic, and is,
moreover, a French-speaking province. There, too, there