There is no analogy with Quebec, Victoria,
Massachusetts, or Wuertemburg, which had all been accustomed to
self-government before they entered their respective Federations.
Ireland has to find her best men, create her domestic policies,
reconstruct her administration, and the larger the reservoir of talent
she has to draw from the better. When true Federation becomes practical
politics it will be another matter. By that time she will have men to
spare.

(_b_) More serious objection still, retention in full numbers will, it
is to be feared, tend to counteract the benefits of Home Rule in Ireland
by keeping alive old dissensions and bad political habits. If, after
long and hot controversy, a system is set up under which Great Britain
can still be regarded as a pacificator--half umpire and half
policeman--of what Peel called the "warring sects" of Ireland, it is to
be feared that the Members sent to London may fall into the old
unnatural party divisions; a Protestant minority seeking to revoke or
curtail Home Rule, and a Nationalist majority--paradoxical survival of a
pre-national period--seeking to maintain or enlarge Home Rule. These
unhappy results would react in their turn upon the Irish Legislature,
impairing the value of Home Rule, and making Ireland, as of old, the
cockpit of sectarian and sentimental politics. The same results would
have happened if, simultaneously with the concession of Home Rule to
Canada, Australia and South Africa, these Colonies had been given
representation in the British Parliament.

(_c_) Whatever the extent of the danger I have indicated, inclusion in
full numbers will tend to keep alive the habit of dependence on Great
Britain for financial aid, a habit so ingrained, through no fault of
Ireland's, that it will be difficult to break if the Parliamentary
leverage is left intact. If ever there was a country which needed, as
far as humanly possible, to be thrown for a time--not necessarily for a
long time--upon its own resources, it is Ireland. Every other
self-governing Colony in the Empire has gone through that bracing and
purifying ordeal, accepting from the Mother Country, without repayment,
only the loan of military and naval defence, and Ireland can imitate
them without dishonour.

What is bad for Ireland is sure to be bad for Great Britain, too, and
the bad effect in this case is sufficiently apparent. Imagine the result
if Quebec, besides having her own Legislature and her own
rep