n parliament of
knowing something about Ireland.

What is certain is that English and Scotch members acted with their eyes
open. Irish tories and Irish nationalists agreed in menacing predictions.
The vast masses of Irish people, said the former, had no sense of loyalty
and no love of order to which a government could appeal. In many districts
the only person who was unsafe was the peace officer or the relatives of a
murdered man. The effect of the change would be the utter annihilation of
the political power of the most orderly, the most loyal, the most educated
classes of Ireland, and the swamping of one-fourth of the community,
representing two-thirds of its property. A representative of the great
house of Hamilton in the Commons, amid a little cloud of the dishevelled
prophecies (M54) too common in his class, assured the House that everybody
knew that if the franchise in Ireland were extended, the days of home rule
could not be far distant. The representative of the great house of
Beresford in the Lords, the resident possessor of a noble domain, an able
and determined man, with large knowledge of his country, so far as large
knowledge can be acquired from a single point of view, expressed his
strong conviction that after the passage of this bill the Irish outlook
would be blacker than it had ever been before.(78)

Another person, far more powerful than any Hamilton or Beresford, was
equally explicit. With characteristic frigidity, precision, and
confidence, the Irish leader had defined his policy and his expectations.
"Beyond a shadow of doubt," he had said to a meeting in the Rotunda at
Dublin, "it will be for the Irish people in England--separated, isolated as
they are--and for your independent Irish members, to determine at the next
general election whether a tory or a liberal English ministry shall rule
England. This is a great force and a great power. If we cannot rule
ourselves, we can at least cause them to be ruled as we choose. This force
has already gained for Ireland inclusion in the coming Franchise bill. We
have reason to be proud, hopeful, and energetic."(79) In any case, he
informed the House of Commons, even if Ireland were not included in the
bill, the national party would come back seventy-five strong. If household
suffrage were conceded to Ireland, they would come back ninety strong.(80)
That was the only difference. Therefore, though he naturally supported
inclusion,(81) it was not at all indispe