dmit of being
measured in money. The interest, welfare, or prosperity of England
includes the maintenance of her honour, the performance of all her
obligations, and, above all, the strict discharge of every engagement
which she has undertaken towards countries or to individuals. The
protection, for example, of law-abiding citizens in the enjoyment of
rights secured to them by law; the maintenance of peace throughout the
length and breadth of the Empire; the suppression of lawlessness; the
strict performance of every promise which the State has made to every
man or body of men, whether poor or rich, whether belonging to the class
of labourers, of farmers, or even of landlords--the rendering, in short,
to every man of his due--are things which without any improper extension
of the term interest fall under the head of national interests.
Utilitarianism, in truth, being a body of principles applicable
primarily to legislation and only secondarily to ethics, its doctrines
hold far more obviously true in the field of politics than in the field
of morals. On any wide view of large public questions expediency will be
found to be only another name for justice. It can be neither the
interest nor the duty of any nation to legislate in a way which produces
more of suffering than of happiness. A policy opposed to the interests
or the welfare of the United Kingdom as a whole, even though it may
appear for a moment to favour some particular portion of the State, is,
we may be well assured, a policy opposed not only to wisdom, but to
justice.

[Sidenote: 3. Exclusively English point of view.]

_Third objection._--To look at Home Rule mainly from an English point of
view, to criticise it because of its bearing on the interests or welfare
of England, is, it may perhaps be thought, to treat the whole matter
from the wrong side, and to betray an indifference to the welfare of
Ireland. Home Rule, the objector may say, is a scheme for the government
of Ireland. It therefore concerns the people of Ireland alone, it should
be subjected to examination from an Irish, not from an English point of
view, and to consider it in any other light is to exhibit in a new form
that callous disregard by England of Ireland's claims which has
prevented the two countries from blending into one community.

It is of primary importance that this objection should be stated with
all the force which can be given to it, for were it valid it would
assuredly be, in