hly
up to the present. From the success of this policy, what possible direct
inference can be drawn as to the effect of setting up in Ireland, not a
similar system of government, for Ireland already enjoys political
institutions as fully representative as those of any Colony, or of any
other portion of the United Kingdom, but a separate centre of
government?

At the same time the success of responsible government in the Colonies
is, on closer examination, by no means without bearing on the problem of
Ireland. That system of Colonial responsible government which seems to
us so simple and obvious is, on the contrary, one of the most artificial
systems the world has ever known, based as it is upon conditions which
have never been present before in the world's history, and which are now
rapidly disappearing, never, perhaps, to recur. That a popular assembly
in complete control of the executive, should respect an unwritten
convention limiting its powers and rights to purely local affairs, and
submit to a purely external control of its wider interests and
destinies, seemed to most of Lord Durham's contemporaries almost
unthinkable. Not only those who opposed the policy, but many of those
who advocated it, were convinced that it would lead to complete
separation. Nor were their fears or hopes by any means ill-grounded.
That they were not justified by the event was due to an altogether
exceptional combination of factors. The first of these was the
overwhelming supremacy of the United Kingdom in commerce and naval
power, and its practical monopoly of political influence in the outer
world. Sheltered by an invincible navy, far removed from the sound of
international conflict, the Colonies had no practical motive for
concerning themselves with foreign affairs, or with any but purely local
measures of defence. Even when, as in 1854, they were technically
involved by the United Kingdom in war with a great Power, they were not
so much as inconvenienced. The United Kingdom, on the other hand,
incurred no serious expenditure for their defence beyond what was in any
case required for the defence of its sea-borne commerce, nor was its
foreign policy at any time seriously deflected by regard for Colonial
considerations. Even when the Colonies encroached on the original limits
set them, and began to establish protectionist tariffs against the
Mother Country, British manufacturers could afford to disregard a
handicap of which they were at