ent
the knowledge, the interest, or the time necessary for dealing with new
questions as they arise--for arise they assuredly will.

Great Britain may legislate with lazy, ill-informed, good intentions, as
Mr. Gladstone admitted was done in the case of the Encumbered Estates
Act, or she may grant concessions piecemeal, and the minority which
thereby she maintains will denounce every reform as mere _panem et
circenses_ by which she hopes to keep the majority subdued.

The "loyal minority" have cried "wolf" too often. Nearly forty years
ago, when Disestablishment was threatened, the Protestant Archbishop of
Dublin said--"You will put to Irish Protestants the choice between
apostacy and expatriation, and every man among them who has money or
position, when he sees his Church go, will leave the country. If you do
that, you will find Ireland so difficult to manage that you will have to
depend on the gibbet and the sword."

The twenty-five attempts to settle by legislation the land question were
in nearly every instance denounced as spoliation by the House of Lords,
which was constrained to let them pass into law. The pages of Hansard
are grey with unfulfilled forebodings as to what would be the effect of
the extension of the Franchise and of the grant of popular Local
Government. The results of the former took the wind out of the sails of
those who declared that popular wishes in Ireland were overridden by a
political caucus, the success of local government has given Orangemen
occasion to blaspheme.

The history of Irish legislation on all these points has been one of
belated concession to demands repeatedly made, at first scouted and
finally surrendered. And withal, English statesmen have not killed Home
Rule with kindness. "Twenty years of resolute government" were
confidently expected to give Irish Nationalism its _quietus. E pur si
muove._

NOTES

[1] L. Paul-Dubois. _L'Irlande Contemporaine_, p. 174.

[2] "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill," Vol. II., p. 455.

[3] _L'Irlande Contemporaine_, p. 232.

[4] Hansard, August 1, 1881.

[5] _Ibid._, September 3, 1886.

[6] _Ibid._, August 19, 1886.

[7] _Ibid._, March 22, 1887.

[8] _Ibid._, April 22, 1887.

[9] _Ibid._, February 14, 1907.

[10] The statement in the text, written shortly after the
prorogation of Parliament, unexpectedly demands modification. Almost all
the planters on the Clanricarde estate have expressed their readiness to
clear out