y retarding its realization, to pervert some of its strength and
beauty, and to diminish the vital energy on which its fruition depends.
And it is possible in the case of Ireland, up to and in the very hour of
her emancipation, after a struggle more bitter and exhausting than any
in the Empire, to heap obstacles in the path of the men who have carried
her to the goal, and on whom in the first instance must fall the
extraordinarily difficult and delicate task of political reconstruction.
They will be on their mettle in the eyes of the world to prove that the
prophets of evil were wrong, to show sympathy and inspire confidence in
the very quarters where they have been most savagely traduced and least
trusted, and they will have to exhibit dauntless courage in attacking
old abuses and promoting new reforms. They will need their hands
strengthened in every possible way.

The help must come--and it cannot come too soon--from the working
optimists of Ireland, from the hundreds of men and women, of both
parties and creeds, who are labouring outside politics to extirpate that
stifling undergrowth of pessimism which runs riot in countries denied
the light and air of freedom. All these people agree on the axiom that
Ireland has a distinct individual existence, and that her future depends
upon herself. No one should dare to stop there. Let him who feels
impelled to stop there at any rate act with open eyes. In expecting to
realize social reconstruction without political reconstruction--however
divergent the aims may now seem to be--he expects to achieve what has
never been achieved in any country in the Empire, and to achieve this
miracle in the very country which has suffered most from political
repression, and possesses the most fantastic system of government to be
found in the King's dominions. The thing is impossible, and if at bottom
he feels it to be so, and inclines sadly to the view that political
servitude is but the least of two evils, I would only venture to suggest
this: Is it not a finer course to stake something on a risk run in every
white community but Ireland rather than to face the certainty of half
achievement? And is it not, after all, a sound risk to trust the very
men who now respond to the appeal for self-reliance, mutual tolerance,
and united effort in their private affairs, not to renounce these
qualities and abuse the rights of citizenship when the public affairs of
their country are under their own contro