Handbook of Home Rule | Page 2

long objected to the system by which Ireland has been governed, and
who find that their earnest appeals for reform have been, until recent
times, contemptuously disregarded by English politicians. Time after
time moderate counsels have been rejected until too late. Acts of an
exceptional character intended to secure law and order have been very
numerous, and every one of them has caused fresh irritation; while
remedial measures have been given in a manner which has not won the
sympathy of the people, because they have not been the work of the

Irish themselves, and have not been prepared in their own way.
Parliament seems during the past Session to have fallen into the same
error. By the power of an English majority, measures have been passed
which are vehemently opposed by the political leaders and the majority
of the Irish nation, and which are only agreeable to a small minority in
Ireland. This action can only succeed if the Irish can be persuaded to
relinquish the national sentiments of Home Rule; and yet this was
never stronger or more vigorous than at the present time. It is supported
by millions of Irish settled in America and in Australia; and here I
would say that it has often struck me that the strong feeling of
dissatisfaction, or, I might say, of disaffection, among the Irish is fed
and nurtured by the marked contrast existing between the social
condition of large numbers of the Irish in the South and West of Ireland
and the views and habits of their numerous relatives in the United
States.
The social condition of many parts of Ireland is as backward, or
perhaps more backward, than the condition of the rural population of
England at the end of last or the beginning of this century. The Irish
peasantry still live in poor hovels, often in the same room with animals;
they have few modern comforts; and yet they are in close
communication with those who live at ease in the cities and farms of
the United States. They are also imbued with all the advanced political
notions of the American Republic, and are sufficiently educated to read
the latest political doctrines in the Press which circulates among them.
Their social condition at home is a hundred years behind their state of
political and mental culture. They naturally contrast the misery of many
Irish peasants with the position of their relatives in the New World.
This cannot but embitter their views against English rulers, and
strengthen their leaning to national sentiments. Their national
aspirations have never died out since 1782. They have taken various
forms; but if the movements arising from them have been put down,
fresh movements have constantly sprung up. The Press has grown into
an immense power, and its influences have all been used to strengthen
the zeal for Irish nationality, while, at the same time, the success of the
national movements in Italy, Hungary, Greece, and Germany have had

the same effect. Lastly, the sentiment of Home Rule has gained the
sympathy of large bodies of electors in the constituencies of Great
Britain, and, under the circumstances, it is difficult to suppose that,
even if the country remains quiet, constitutional agitation will vanish or
the Irish relinquish their most cherished ambition.
We hear, from men who ought to know something of Ireland, that if the
Land question is once settled, and dual ownership practically abolished,
the tenants will be satisfied, and the movement for Home Rule will no
longer find active support in Ireland. Without going into the whole of
this argument, I should like to say two things: first, that I do not know
how a large scheme of Land Purchase can be carried through
Parliament with safety to Imperial interests without establishing, at the
same time, some strong Irish Government in Dublin to act between the
Imperial Government and the tenants of Ireland; and, second, that the
feeling for Home Rule has a vitality of its own which will survive the
Land question, even if independently settled.
Home Rule is an expression of national feeling which cannot be
extinguished in Ireland, and the only safe method of dealing with it is
to turn its force and power to the support of an Irish Government
established for the management of local Irish affairs. There are those
who think that this must lead to separation. I cannot believe in this fear,
for I know of no English statesman who looks upon complete
separation of Ireland from Great Britain as possible. The geographical
position of Ireland, the social and commercial connection between the
two peoples, renders such a thing impossible. The Irish know this, and
they are not so foolish as to think that they could gain their
independence by force of arms; but I do