rs is that the absence
of loyalty on the part of Ireland is the obstacle which stands in the
way of his advocacy of such a policy. One may well ask in reply whether
Lord Rosebery is aware of the complete absence of loyalty at the time
when Canada was granted self-government, and the state of feeling
towards England in the new South African colonies two years ago is a
further case in point; but the most pertinent question which can be
asked of Lord Rosebery is on what ground he makes this his condition
precedent, in view of the fact that the loyalty or disloyalty of
Irishmen stands exactly as it did in 1886 and 1893, in both of which
years Lord Rosebery was a member of the Ministries which introduced Home
Rule Bills into Parliament.

That hostility is evinced by large sections of Irishmen to England, as
well as by Englishmen to Ireland, and that much sympathy was felt, as it
was by the most distinguished of the members of the present Cabinet, for
the South African Republics, which Irishmen regarded as struggling
nationalities like their own, I am not concerned to deny. The same
feeling of hostility, as I have already said, was rampant at the time of
the Crimean war, and may be expected to continue till the end of the
present system of government arrives; but to those who, for party
purposes, declare that they see a risk that possible European
complications would be accentuated for Great Britain to the point of
danger by the proximity of an Ireland with a Parliament in Dublin, the
answer is, that it is difficult to conceive a state of affairs more
fraught with danger to England than would be found in the existence
during a great war of an adjacent island which has been haughtily denied
that mode of government which she claims, and which in the troubles of
the other country will see an opportunity of extracting by threats and
from fear in an hour of peril that which she was unable to secure by
other means in the day of prosperity. One may well ask whether this
prospect is one to which Great Britain can look forward with calmness,
that she should have to legislate at fever heat to cope with the
contingencies of the moment with no well-ordered scheme of things; not
that way lies an end by which she will secure peace conceived in the
spirit of peace.

CHAPTER IX

IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN

"In reason all government without the consent of the governed
is the very definition of slavery; but in fact eleven m