ich has failed, which has been discarded, and which, in my judgment,
ought never to be revived.

II

HISTORICAL RETROSPECT

BY J.R. FISHER

(Author of "The End of the Irish Parliament"; Editor of the _Northern
Whig_)

When Pitt commended his proposals for the Union to "the dispassionate
and sober judgment of the Parliament of Ireland," he argued that such a
measure was at once "transcendently important" to the Empire, and
"eminently useful" to the true interests of Ireland. Lord Clare, as an
Irishman, naturally reversed the order, but his compelling points were
the same:--To Ireland the Union was a "vital interest," which at the
same time "intimately affected the strength and prosperity of the
British Empire." From that day to this the two fundamental arguments for
the Union of Great Britain and Ireland have remained unchanged, and they
apply with ever-growing force to the existing situation at home and
abroad. But the argument from history has, perhaps, been a little
neglected of late, and calls for at least a passing notice.

Popular oratory will have it that England has always been keen and
aggressive in regard to the incorporation of Ireland within the Empire,
but as a matter of fact, the very opposite has been the case. From the
time of Pope Adrian's Bull, _Laudabiliter_, in 1154, which granted to
Henry II. the Lordship of Ireland, but which Henry left unemployed for
seventeen years, to that of the Irish petition for a legislative Union
in 1703, which remained unanswered for nearly a century, vacillation and
hesitation rather than eagerness for aggression have been the
characteristic marks of English policy in Ireland. Far-sighted statesmen
could point out the benefits to Ireland from such a connection, but as
a rule it was the presence of actual foreign danger that forced the
British Parliament to act. For four centuries the Lordship of the
English Kings over Ireland was largely nominal. It was only when the
religious quarrels of the sixteenth century became acute that the
Tudors--already alarmed at the action of the Irish Parliament in
recognising and crowning a pretender in Dublin Castle--found themselves
compelled to assert direct Kingship.

From that time till the legislative Union every enemy of England could
safely count on finding a foothold and active friends in Ireland. It is
much too late in the day to indulge in any recriminations on this score.
The issues were the most tremendous that