al, and without dispute in our colonies,
which are all dependent, should not be carried into effect with equal
ease in Ireland, which is more closely bound to us and more completely
under our power than the colonies are, or than the several States are
under the power of the Central Government.

To conclude: the cause of Irish discontent is the conjoint operation of
the passion for nationality and the vicious system of land tenure, and
the scheme of the Irish Home Rule Bill and the Land Bill removes the
whole fabric on which Irish discontent is raised. The Irish, by the
great majority of their representatives, have accepted the Home Rule
Bill as a satisfactory settlement of the nationality question. The
British Parliament can, through the medium of the Home Rule Bill and the
establishment of an Irish Legislature, carry through a final settlement
of agrarian disputes with less injustice to individuals than could a
Parliament sitting in Dublin, and, be it added, with scarcely any
appreciable risk to the British taxpayer. Of course it may be said that
an Irish Parliament will go farther--that Home Rule is a step to
separation, and a reform of the Land Laws a spoliation of the landlords.
To those who urge such arguments I would recommend the perusal of the
speech of Burke on Conciliation with America, and especially the
following sentences, substituting "Ireland" for "the colonies:"--

"But [the Colonies] Ireland will go further. Alas! alas! when will this
speculating against fact and reason end? What will quiet these panic
fears which we entertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory
conduct? Is it true that no case can exist in which it is proper for the
Sovereign to accede to the desires of his discontented subjects? Is
there anything peculiar in this case to make it a rule for itself? Is
all authority of course lost when it is not pushed to the extreme? Is it
a certain maxim that the fewer causes of discontentment are left by
Government the more the subject will be inclined to resist and rebel?"

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 9: Burke's Speech on American Taxation, vol. i. p. 174]

[Footnote 10: This is the opinion of both English and American lawyers.
See Blackstone's Comm., i. 90; Austin on Jurisprudence, i. 226. As to
American cases, see Corley on Constitutional Limitations, pp. 2-149.]

[Footnote 11: "Lectures on the Colonies," p, 641.]

[Footnote 12: Burke, vol. i. p. 181.]

[Footnote 13: "Letter on Affairs of Ir