contracts, to
deprive any man of his property without due compensation. The Ten
Commandments, in short, and the obvious applications thereof, might be
embodied in the fundamental law of the land. Federalism would at lowest
preserve a formal respect for justice, and if the system worked
efficiently, would protect individuals and minorities from gross
oppression at the hands of the Irish State Government.

These are the benefits of Home Rule to Great Britain. Let us now examine
what are the evils to Great Britain of the proposed constitutional
revolution. For whoever either will meditate for a short time on the
nature of Federalism, or will examine the mode in which the constitution
of the United States--the most successful federation which the world has
seen--actually works, will soon perceive that what is miscalled "Irish
Federalism" is in reality "British Federalism," and amounts, as I am
forced to reiterate again and again, to a proposal for changing the
whole constitution of the United Kingdom It is, in fact, the most
"revolutionary" proposal, if the word "revolutionary" be used in its
strict sense, which has ever been submitted to an English Parliament,
the abolition of the House of Lords, the disestablishment of the
Church, the abolition of the monarchy, might leave the English
constitution far less essentially changed than would the adoption of
Federalism even in that apparently moderate form in which it was
presented by Mr. Butt to the consideration of the English public.

[Sidenote: Disadvantages of Federalism to England.]

The definite disadvantages to England of the proposed revolution may be
summed up under three heads:--First, the sovereignty of the Imperial
Parliament would be destroyed and all English constitutional
arrangements would be dislocated; secondly, the power of Great Britain
would be diminished; thirdly, the chance of further disagreement with
Ireland would certainly not be diminished, and would probably be
increased.

_First._--Under all the formality, the antiquarianism, the shams of the
British constitution, there lies latent an element of power which has
been the true source of its life and growth. This secret source of
strength is the absolute omnipotence,[34] the sovereignty, of
Parliament. As to the mode in which King, Lords, and Commons were to
divide the sovereign power between themselves there have been at
different times disputes leading to civil war; but that Parliament--that
is