ing short of the Union of the two countries
would deliver Ireland out of the hands of her fatuous chiefs and of
their too worthy followers."

What would Mr. John Morley, the historian who wrote those words in the
prime of his intellectual strength and judgment, have said if any one
had told him that in his old age Lord Morley, the politician, would have
been actively engaged in assisting another generation of "fatuous
chiefs" and still more worthy followers to sacrifice the true interests
of Ireland in the pursuit of "the phantom of Irish Legislative
Independence"?

AFTER THE UNION.

That the Union to some extent failed in the beneficent effects which it
was calculated to produce in Ireland is only another instance of the
working of the "curse of mis-chance" which has so often, before and
since, interposed to thwart the intentions of statesmen in their
dealings with the two countries. Pitt, Castlereagh, and Cornwallis, the
three men chiefly concerned in planning the change, were all agreed in
explaining that the Union was not a policy complete in itself, but was
only the necessary foundation upon which a true remedial policy was to
be based. As Lord Cornwallis said at the time, "the word 'Union' will
not cure the ills of this wretched country. It is a necessary
preliminary, but a great deal more remains to be done." Catholic
Emancipation, a series of parliamentary, educational, financial, and
economic reforms, and the abolition of the Viceroyalty, the visible
symbol of separatism and dependence, were all essential portions of
Pitt's scheme. But Pitt was destined to sink into an early grave without
seeing any of them materially furthered. Treacherous colleagues and the
threatened insanity of the King blocked the way of some of them:
England's prolonged struggle for existence against the power of
Napoleon, involving as it did financial embarrassment and a generation
of political reaction, accounted for the rest.

Pitt and Castlereagh resigned on the King's refusal to accept their
advice, "and so," as Lord Rosebery says,[14] "all went wrong." It was
"like cutting the face out of a portrait and leaving the picture in the
frame. The fragment of policy flapped forlornly on the deserted mansions
of the capital." A generation of agitation, strife, and discontent was
to pass before Emancipation was carried, and the reforms had to wait
still longer. Meanwhile a wonderful change of front had taken place. The
leadi