the Union, not in form only but in reality, the policy is favoured no less by the current of English history, than by the tendencies of modern civilization.  It preserves that unity of the State which is essential to the authority of England and to the maintenance of the Empire.  It provides, as matters now stand, the only means of giving legal protection to a large body of loyal British subjects.  It is the refusal not only to abdicate legitimate power, but (what is of far more consequence) to renounce the fulfilment of imperative duties.  Nor does Union imply uniformity.  Unity of Government—­equality of rights—­diversity of institutions,—­these are the watchwords for all Unionists.  To attain these objects may be beyond our power, and the limit to power is the limit to responsibility.  Still, whatever may be the difficulties, or even the disadvantages, of maintaining the Union, it undoubtedly has in its favour not only all the recommendations which must belong to a policy of rational conservatism, but also these two decisive advantages—­that it does sustain the strength of the United Kingdom, and that it does not call for any dereliction of duty.

Separation, or in other words the national independence of Ireland, is an idea which has not entered into the practical consideration of Englishmen.  The evils which it threatens are patent:  it at the same moment diminishes the means of Great Britain and increases the calls upon her resources.  It lowers the fame of the country, and plants by the side of England a foreign, it may be a hostile, neighbour; it involves the desertion of loyal fellow-citizens who have trusted in the good faith of England.  Yet, on the other hand, the material losses and perhaps the dangers involved in the independence of Ireland are liable to exaggeration.  Great Britain might find in her complete freedom of action and in restored unity of national sentiment elements of power which might balance the obvious damage resulting from Separation; she might also find it possible to make for the protection of Loyalists terms more efficacious than any guarantees contained in the articles of a statutory constitution.  If, further, the spirit of nationality has the vivifying power ascribed to it by its votaries, then Ireland might gain from it blessings which cannot be conferred by any scheme of merely Parliamentary independence, since no form of Home Rule can transform Ireland into a nation.

For Home Rule it may be pleaded that it offers two obvious advantages:  it satisfies the immediate wish of millions of Irishmen, and it facilitates the adaptation of Irish institutions to Irish wants.  These advantageous results are the best that can be hoped for from Home Rule.  They are real, and to underrate them is folly; the moral gain indeed of meeting the wishes of the body of the Irish people is so incalculable, that did Home Rule involve no intolerable evils a rational man might think it wise to venture on the experiment.  Home Rule, it may