* * * * *

"La reforme de la vice-royaute et l’abolition des administrations locales d’Irlande ne sont, sans doute, que des changements de forme.  Mais ce sont des moyens pratiques indispensables pour executer les reformes politiques dont ce pays a besoin.  Il faut que, pendant la periode de transition ou se trouve l’Irlande, ceux qui la gouvernent soient places absolument en dehors d’elle, de ses moeurs, de ses passions; il faut que son gouvernement cesse completement d’etre irlandais; il faut qu’il soit entierement, non pas anglais, mais remis a des Anglais."—­2 De Beaumont, l’Irlande, Sociale, Politique et Religieuse, pp. 124-129

CHAPTER III.

STRENGTH OF THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND.

[Sidenote:  Strength of movement.]

A dispassionate observer will easily convince himself that in Great Britain the movement in favour of Home Rule is stronger than is believed by its opponents.  Patent facts show that this is so.  In 1880 no single English statesman had avowed himself its supporter; not fifty English or Scotch members of Parliament could have been found to vote for an enquiry into the admissibility of Mr. Parnell’s policy.  It may well be doubted whether at that date ten British constituencies would have returned to Parliament representatives pledged to grant Ireland a separate legislature.  Contrast this state of things with the present condition of affairs.  England has indeed pronounced decisively against any tampering with the Act of Union, but the leading statesman of the day has avowed himself a Home Ruler; he is supported by eminent colleagues, and by nearly two hundred representatives of British constituencies.  Scotland and Wales on the whole favour the policy of separation, and if, as has been roughly computed, of the electors of the United Kingdom, 1,316,327 have voted in support of the Union, the same computation shows that 1,238,342 are, to say the least, indifferent to its maintenance.  These are facts which tell their own tale.  The Home Rule movement has waxed strong.  What is in England the source of its strength, and what are the arguments in its support relied upon by its English advocates?

[Sidenote:  Source of its strength.]

Nine persons out of ten will reply that the Home Rule movement in England owes its origin and force to the patronage of Mr. Gladstone.  No one who has watched the ebb and flow of popular feeling will underrate that statesman’s influence, and few persons, whatever their political bias, will deny that but for Mr. Gladstone’s conversion Mr. Parnell’s teaching would not at this moment have gained for him as many as fifty disciples among English politicians.  It may even be conceded that but for Mr. Gladstone’s action no English party would, during his lifetime, have adopted the Parliamentary independence of Ireland as a watchword.  But here, as in other instances,