legislation for Ireland by the Imperial Parliament, any conflict between the wish of England and the wish, I do not say of Ireland, but of the Irish Nationalists, must from the nature of things put an end to all gratitude or content.  But we may go further than this:  the new constitution contains elements of discord.  It denies to Ireland the rights of a nation; it does not concede to her the full privileges of colonial independence.  No genuine Nationalist can really acquiesce in the prohibition of Ireland’s arming even in self-defence.  Where, again, is the Nationalist who is prepared to say that he will not if the Bill is passed demand that every conspirator and every dynamiter, who is suffering for the cause of Ireland, shall be released from prison?  Is it credible that the Land Leaguers have forgotten what is due to the wounded soldiers of their cause?  Are they prepared to forget the imperative claims of evicted tenants or imprisoned zealots?[100] I cannot believe it.

But if they are so base as to forget what is due to their friends and victims, what trust could England place in the permanence of any sentiment expressed by such men with however much temporary fervour and however much apparent honesty?  If, as I am convinced, the Irish leaders are not prepared to betray the fanatics or ruffians who have trusted and served them, then with what content does England look on the prospect of a general amnesty for criminals or of lavish rewards for breach of contract and the defiance of law?

But in truth the new constitution provides for the general discontent, not of one class of Irishmen, but of the whole Irish people.

Home Rule is at bottom federalism, and the successful working of a federal government depends on the observation by its founders of two principles.  The first is that no one State should be so much more powerful than the rest as to be capable of vying in strength with the whole, or even with many of them combined.[101] The second is that the federal power should never if possible come into direct conflict with the authority of any State.  Each of these well-known principles has, partly from necessity and partly from want of skill, been violated by the constructors of the spurious federation which is to be miscalled the United Kingdom.  The confederacy will consist of two States; the one, England, to use popular but highly significant language, in wealth, in population, and in prestige immensely outweighs the other, Ireland.  And by an error less excusable because it might have been avoided, the power of the central government will be brought into direct conflict with the authority of the Irish State.  Read the Bill as it should be read by any one who wishes to understand the working of the new constitution, and throughout substitute ‘England’ for the term ‘United Kingdom.’  Note then what must be the operation of the constitution in the eyes of an Irishman.  The federal power is the power of England.  An English Viceroy instructed