e it noted, is not to
prejudge the question reserved for subsequent consideration, whether
some kind of federalism may not supply the solution of the problem how
to adjust the political connection between England and Ireland. It is no
more than noting the often-overlooked fact that the admitted success of
federal government in the United States gives no presumption in favour
of its suitability for Great Britain and Ireland.

The experience of foreign countries to which Home Rulers confidently
appeal resolves itself, if the matter be carefully sifted, and if the
colonial system of England and the federalism of America be left for the
moment out of account, into the fact that two powerful continental
Empires maintain Imperial unity, and yet (as it is alleged without
lessening their strength) contain within their limits States each of
which enjoys a large amount of independence. That neither the German
Empire nor the Austro-Hungarian monarchy suffer inconvenience from the
looseness of the connection between the States which they each contain
is one of those assertions more easily made than proved to be true; but
supposing its truth to be, for the moment and purely for the sake of
argument, admitted, there will still be found considerable difficulty in
showing that either German Imperialism or the Dual system of
Austria-Hungary contains lessons of practical value for the guidance of
English statesmen.

What indeed is the precise inference which one is to draw from the fact
that the constitution of the German Empire leaves, for example, to
Bavaria a large amount of independence it is not very easy to
understand. The whole circumstances of the German Empire are as
different from the circumstances of Great Britain as the position of one
civilised European country can well be from the situation of another.
The salient characteristic of German history is that Germany consists of
States which until quite recently have never been politically
consolidated into a nation. The United Kingdom has for nearly a century
formed a political unit, and has now for something nearly approaching
two centuries been subject in reality if not in name to one sovereign
Parliament. The whole scheme of the Empire, with its independent or
semi-independent sovereigns, with its kings, princes, and free towns, is
something to which there is absolutely nothing to correspond in the
present condition or in the historical development of England. The
German E