and unprogressive Cantons of Switzerland, the weakness of Prussia when, not much more than forty[135] years back, she could hardly maintain her rights and her dignity against Austria, the classical instance of Germany, which though possessed of every source of power lay for generations at the mercy of France, mainly on account of vicious political institutions, are proofs, if evidence were wanting, of the capacity of ill-designed constitutions to hamper the action and threaten the prosperity of great nations.  A constitution in truth is a national garb.  A good constitution will not make a weak country strong, but an unsuitable constitution may reduce a strong country to feebleness.  A weakling does not become a strong man by putting on armour, but a giant can derive no advantage from his strength if once he be got by fraud or force into a strait waistcoat.

Strength, it is true, will in the long run assert itself.  The artificial supremacy of Ireland, or of a faction supported by Irish votes, will not last for ever; probably it will not last long.  If the new constitution prove unbearable by England it will not be borne; it will be overthrown or evaded.  Far am I from asserting that the breach or evasion will, when it shall occur, be justifiable.  Englishmen’s ideas of good faith are strict, but they are narrow.  One main reason for dreading the new constitution is that it may try beyond measure the patience and the honesty of England.  If, for instance, Ulster should resist the legal authority of the Parliament at Dublin, there may arise one of those terrible periods in which the observation of pledged faith seems inconsistent with the natural dictates of honour and humanity, and weak concession at the present moment will, at such a crisis, be found to have contained among its other perils the danger lest England, when at last she re-asserts her power in Ireland, should not re-establish her justice.

Where then lies the path of safety?  The road is difficult, but it is clearly marked; it is at any rate to be found, not by any exercise of subtlety or of extraordinary acuteness, but by obeying the plain dictates of common sense and sound public morality.  The characteristics of Unionist policy must be seriousness, simplicity, and reliance upon an appeal to the nation.

Seriousness is essential.

The need of the time is to impress on the mass of the people the intense gravity of the crisis.  Far too much was said before the general election about the weaknesses and the inconsistencies of the Gladstonians, and far too little about the causes of their strength and the absolute necessity for arduous efforts to defeat the Separatists at the polling-booths.  The error must not be repeated.