and it was not till Mr. Parnell’s influence united the majority of Irish representatives into a party hostile to Great Britain that any essential evil or inconvenience resulted from their presence at Westminster.  This inconvenience, whatever its extent, has been the price of the Union.  The gain has been worth the payment:  the action of Parliament has been hampered, but its essential and effective authority throughout the realm has been maintained.

In 1886 Mr. Gladstone framed a constitution which was meant to be a final and a just settlement of the questions at issue between England and Ireland.  Under the constitution of 1886 Great Britain surrendered to Ireland about the same amount of independence as is offered her under the proposed constitution of 1893.  But the difference in the position of Great Britain under the two constitutions is immense.

Under the constitution of 1886 Great Britain was offered a position of the highest authority.

To the British Parliament (in which was to sit not a single Irish member) was to fall the appointment of the British or Imperial Ministry.  The British Parliament received absolute control of all British, colonial, Imperial, and foreign affairs.  Perfect unity was restored to the spirit of her government, and predominance in the British, or, to use ordinary language, in the English, Parliament was given to the conservative elements of English society.  Great Britain became mistress in her own home; she became much more than this; she was enthroned as undisputed sovereign of the British Empire.[53]

Under the constitution, in short, of 1886, if Great Britain was weakened on one side she was strengthened on another.  Her Parliament obtained an immense accession of authority, and was all but entirely freed both from the necessity for considering Irish questions and from the damage of Irish obstruction.  Ireland surrendered to England all share in the government of the Empire, and the further dismemberment of Great Britain without the assent of the British people became difficult, if not impossible.  It does not lie in the mouth of Gladstonians to say that the measure of 1886 was unjust.  It was laid before the country as a compromise which was just to England and to Ireland.  The Irish leaders, we were told, accepted the proposal, just as we are told that they accept the proposed constitution of 1893.  If the acceptance was honest, then in 1886 they agreed to a bargain far more favourable to England than the contract now pressed on our acceptance.  If their acquiescence was a mere pretence, what trust can we place in the assertion that they accept the arrangement of 1893?

However this may be, it is clear that England is now offered a position of weakness and of inferiority such as she has never occupied during the whole course of her history.  What is the meaning or justification of the proposed surrender by England of every compensation for Irish Home Rule which was offered her in 1886?