“3.  A liberal measure of local self-government for Ireland.  I would not vest the power in any single assembly for all Ireland, because Ulster is really a different country from the other provinces.  I would give each province a council of its own, and empower that council to legislate (subject, of course, to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament) on all matters not essential to the political and legal unity of the empire, in which I would include local education.  The provincial councils should of course be elective, and the register of electors might be the same as that of electors to the Imperial Parliament.  In England itself the extension of local institutions, as political training schools for the masses, as checks upon the sweeping action of the great central assembly, and as the best organs of legislation in all matters requiring (as popular education, among others, does) adaptation to the circumstances of particular districts, would, I think, have formed a part of any statesmanlike revision of our political system.  Here, also, much good might be done, and much evil averted, by committing the present business of quarter sessions, other than the judicial business, together with such other matters as the central legislative might think fit to vest in local hands, to an assembly elected by the county."[52]

Thus it will be seen that twenty years ago Mr. Goldwin Smith anticipated Mr. Chamberlain’s scheme of provincial councils, and got a good way on the road to an Irish Parliament.

* * * * *

MR. DICEY.

A fairer controversalist, or an abler supporter of the “paper Union,” than Mr. Dicey there is not; nevertheless no man has fired more effective shots into Mr. Pitt’s unfortunate arrangement of 1800.

How well has the “failure” of that arrangement been described in these pithy sentences—­“Eighty-six years have elapsed since the conclusion of the Treaty of Union between England and Ireland.  The two countries do not yet form an united nation.  The Irish people are, if not more wretched (for the whole European world has made progress, and Ireland with it), yet more conscious of wretchedness, and Irish disaffection to England is, if not deeper, more widespread than in 1800.  An Act meant by its authors to be a source of the prosperity and concord which, though slowly, followed upon the Union with Scotland, has not made Ireland rich, has not put an end to Irish lawlessness, has not terminated the feud between Protestants and Catholics, has not raised the position of Irish tenants, has not taken away the causes of Irish discontent, and has, therefore, not removed Irish disloyalty.  This is the indictment which can fairly be brought against the Act of Union."[53]

What follows reflects honour on Mr. Dicey as an honest opponent who does not shrink from facts; but what a wholesale condemnation of the policy of the Imperial Parliament!