ed hostility of eighty-six Hindoos, holding seats in Parliament
as the representatives of the vast majority of the people of India, and
resenting bitterly the domination of the hereditary oppressors of their
race. How long could the Government of India be carried on under such
conditions?

Viewing it all round, then, it must be admitted that the problem of
governing Ireland while leaving things as they are is a sufficiently
formidable one. Read the remarkable admissions which the facts have
forced from intelligent opponents of Home Rule like Mr. Dicey, and add
to them all the other evils which are rooted in our existing system of
Irish government, and then consider what hope there is, under "things as
they are," of "sedulously doing justice to every demand from Ireland,"
"strenuously, and without fear or favour, asserting the equal rights of
landlords and tenants, Protestants and Catholics," "putting down every
outrage, and reforming every abuse;" and all the "while refusing to
accede to the wishes of millions of Irishmen" for a fundamental change
in a political arrangement that has for centuries produced all the
mischief which the so-called Unionist party are forced to admit, and
much more besides, while it has at the same time frustrated every
serious endeavour to bring about the better state of things which they
expect from--what? From "things as they are!" As well expect grapes from
thorns, or figs from thistles. While the tree remains the same, no
amount of weeding, or pruning, or manuring, or change of culture, will
make it bring forth different fruit. Mr. Dicey, among others, has
demolished what Lord Beaconsfield used to call the "bit-by-bit"
reformers of Irish Government--those who would administer homoeopathic
doses of local self-government, but always under protest that the supply
was to stop short of what would satisfy the hunger of the patient. But a
continuance of "things as they are," gilded with a thin tissue of
benevolent hopes and aspirations, is scarcely a more promising remedy
for the ills of Ireland. Is it not time to try some new treatment--one
which has been tried in similar cases, and always with success? One only
policy has never been tried in Ireland--honest Home Rule.

Certainly, if Home Rule is to be refused till all the prophets of evil
are refuted, Ireland must go without Home Rule for ever. "If the sky
fall, we shall catch larks." But he would be a foolish bird-catcher who
waited for that