and every man who
knows their condition knows that I speak the truth when I say that
in every year that passes the Norwegians and the Swedes are more
and more feeling themselves to be the children of a common country,
united by a tie which never is to be broken."

The tie was broken within twenty years.

It may be that the Nationalist leaders, or some of them, do not desire
separation; but it by no means follows that a concession of their
demands would not lead to that result. Franklin, in 1774, had an
interview with Chatham, in which he says--

"I assured him that, having more than once travelled almost from
one end of the continent (of America) to the other, and kept a
great variety of company, eating, drinking, and conversing with
them freely, I never had heard in any conversation from any person,
drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a separation, or
a hint that such a thing would be advantageous to America."[29]

And yet independence came within ten years.

In the case of the United Kingdom there is no need to consider in detail
how serious would be the effects--naval, military, and economic--of
separation, for the gravity of such a contingency is admitted by all.
Admiral Mahan, the American naval expert, writes that--

"the ambition of the Irish separatists, realised, might be even
more threatening to the national life of Great Britain than the
secession of the South was to that of the American Union.... The
instrument for such action in the shape of an independent
Parliament could not safely be trusted even to avowed friends."

Some Home Rulers are able to--

"rise superior to the philosophy, as fallacious in fact as it is
base and cowardly in purpose, which sets the safety of a great
nation above the happiness and prosperity of a small one,"[30]

but to less lofty souls it appears that the safety of the nation is
paramount, and that upon it depends the prosperity of each of its
component parts.

In the next place, in considering whether complete "colonial"
self-government can be conceded to Ireland, it must not be forgotten
that the island is bi-racial, that the two races differ widely in
character, in politics, and in religion, and that the differences are
apt to find vent in violent conflict or secret attacks. Further, Ireland
has for generations been the scene of a revolt against one particular