A vague, but vivid impression was received from all our writers of history, philosophy, and rhetoric that the Scottish element was something really valuable in itself, was something which even Englishmen were forced to recognise and respect.  If we ever admitted the beauty of Ireland, it was as something which might be loved by an Englishman but which could hardly be respected even by an Irishman.  A Scotchman might be proud of Scotland; it was enough for an Irishman that he could be fond of Ireland.  Our success with the two nations has been exactly proportioned to our encouragement of their independent national emotion; the one that we would not treat nationally has alone produced Nationalists.  The one nation that we would not recognise as a nation in theory is the one that we have been forced to recognise as a nation in arms.  The Scottish Patriotic Association has no need to draw my attention to the importance of the separate national sentiment or the need of keeping the Border as a sacred line.  The case is quite sufficiently proved by the positive history of Scotland.  The place of Scottish loyalty to England has been taken by English admiration of Scotland.  They do not need to envy us our titular leadership, when we seem to envy them their separation.

I wish to make very clear my entire sympathy with the national sentiment of the Scottish Patriotic Association.  But I wish also to make clear this very enlightening comparison between the fate of Scotch and of Irish patriotism.  In life it is always the little facts that express the large emotions, and if the English once respected Ireland as they respect Scotland, it would come out in a hundred small ways.  For instance, there are crack regiments in the British Army which wear the kilt—­the kilt which, as Macaulay says with perfect truth, was regarded by nine Scotchmen out of ten as the dress of a thief.  The Highland officers carry a silver-hilted version of the old barbarous Gaelic broadsword with a basket-hilt, which split the skulls of so many English soldiers at Killiecrankie and Prestonpans.  When you have a regiment of men in the British Army carrying ornamental silver shillelaghs you will have done the same thing for Ireland, and not before—­or when you mention Brian Boru with the same intonation as Bruce.

Let me be considered therefore to have made quite clear that I believe with a quite special intensity in the independent consideration of Scotland and Ireland as apart from England.  I believe that, in the proper sense of the words, Scotland is an independent nation, even if Edward VII. is the King of Scotland.  I believe that, in the proper sense of words, Ireland is an independent nation, even if Edward VII. is King of Ireland.  But the fact is that I have an even bolder and wilder belief than either of these.  I believe that England is an independent nation.  I believe that England also has its independent colour and history, and meaning.  I believe that England