country is, I believe, getting restless under the
political bondage, and is seething with a wholesome discontent. In this
very matter of political education, the stir of corporate life, the
sense of corporate responsibility which in every parish of Ireland are
now being fostered by the reformed system of local government, must make
their influence felt in wider spheres. Even now I believe that the field
is ready for the work of those who would bid the old leader-following
habit, the product partly of the dead clan system, partly of dying
national animosities, depart as a thing that has had its day, and who
would endeavour to train up a race of free, self-reliant, and
independent citizens in a free state.

In this work the very men whose mistaken conception of a united Ireland
I have criticised will, I doubt not, take a leading part. In many
respects, and these not the least important, no one could desire a
better instrument for the achievement of great reforms than the Irish
party. They are far beyond any similar group of English members in
rhetorical skill and quickness of intelligence and decision, qualities
which no doubt belong to the mechanism rather than the soul of politics,
but which the practical worker in public life will not despise. But even
when tried by a higher standard the Irish members need not fear the
judgment of history. They have often, in my opinion, misconceived the
true interests of their country, but they have been faithful to those
interests as they understood them, and have proved themselves notably
superior to sordid personal aims. These gifts and virtues are not
common, but still rarer is it to see such gifts and virtues cursed with
the doom of futility. The influence of the Irish political leaders has
neither advanced the nation's march through the wilderness nor taught
the people how they are to dispense with manna from above when they
reach the Promised Land. With all their brilliancy, they have thrown but
little helpful light on any Irish problem. In this want of political and
economic foresight Irish Nationalist politicians, with some exceptions
whom it would be invidious to name, have fallen lamentably short of what
might be expected of Irish intellect. For the eight years during which I
represented an Irish constituency I always felt that an Irish night in
the House of Commons was one of the strangest and most pathetic of
spectacles. There were the veterans of the Irish party hardened