entitled to prevail.  But it is one thing to admit a principle and another to consent to its application.  The minority had the sympathy of the upper classes in England, because the minority contained the landlords.  It had the sympathy of a part of the middle class, because it contained the Protestants.  And of those Englishmen who were impartial as between the Irish factions, there were some who held that England must in any case remain responsible for the internal peace and the just government of Ireland, and could not grant powers whose possession might tempt the one party to injustice, and the other to resist injustice by violence.

There was another anticipation, another forecast of evils to follow, which told most of all upon English opinion.  This was the notion that Home Rule was only a stage in the road to the complete separation of the two islands.  The argument was conceived as follows:  “The motive passions of the Irish agitation have all along been hatred toward England and a desire to make Ireland a nation, holding her independent place among the nations of the world.  This design was proclaimed by the Young Irelanders of 1848 and by the Fenian rebels of 1866; it has been avowed, in intervals of candour, by the present Nationalists themselves.  The grant of an Irish Parliament will stimulate rather than appease this thirst for separate national existence.  The nearer complete independence seems, the more will it be desired.  Hatred to England will still be an active force, because the amount of control which England retains will irritate Irish pride, as well as limit Irish action; while all the misfortunes which may befall the new Irish Government will be blamed, not on its own imprudence, but on the English connection.  And as the motives for seeking separation will remain, so the prospect of obtaining it will seem better.  Agitation will have a better vantage-ground in an Irish Parliament than it formerly had among the Irish members of a British Legislature; and if actual resistance to the Queen’s authority should be attempted, it will be attempted under conditions more favourable than the present, because the rebels will have in their hands the machinery of Irish Government, large financial resources, and a prima facie title to represent the will of the Irish people.  As against a rebellious party in Ireland, England has now two advantages—­an advantage of theory, an advantage of fact.  The advantage of theory is that she does not admit Ireland to be a distinct nation, but maintains that in the United Kingdom there is but one nation, whereof some inhabit Great Britain and some Ireland.  The advantage of fact is that, through her control of the constabulary, the magistrates, the courts of justice, and, in fine, the whole administrative system of Ireland, she can easily quell insurrectionary movements.  By creating an Irish Parliament and Government she would strip herself of both these advantages.”