ted in
for a period of ten years, or until they had secured a substantial
victory. The history of the anti-rent agitation in New York also
illustrates strikingly, as it seems to me, the perspicacity of a remark
made, in substance, long ago by Mr. Disraeli, which, in my eyes at
least, threw a great deal of light on the Irish problem, namely, that
Ireland was suffering from suppressed revolution. As Mr. Dicey says,
"The crises called revolutions are the ultimate and desperate cures for
the fundamental disorganization of society. The issue of a revolutionary
struggle shows what is the true sovereign power in the revolutionized
state. So strong is the interest of mankind, at least in any European
country, in favour of some sort of settled rule, that civil disturbance
will, if left to itself, in general end in the supremacy of some power
which by securing the safety at last gains the attachment of the people.
The Reign of Terror begets the Empire; even wars of religion at last
produce peace, albeit peace may be nothing better than the iron
uniformity of despotism. Could Ireland have been left for any lengthened
period to herself, some form of rule adapted to the needs of the country
would in all probability have been established. Whether Protestants or
Catholics would have been the predominant element in the State; whether
the landlords would have held their own, or whether the English system
of tenure would long ago have made way for one more in conformity with
native traditions; whether hostile classes and races would at last have
established some _modus vivendi_ favourable to individual freedom, or
whether despotism under some of its various forms would have been
sanctioned by the acquiescence of its subjects, are matters of uncertain
speculation. A conclusion which, though speculative, is far less
uncertain, is that Ireland, if left absolutely to herself, would have
arrived, like every other country, at some lasting settlement of her
difficulties" (p. 87). That is to say, that in Ireland as in New York
the attempt to enforce unpopular land laws would have been abandoned,
had local self-government existed. For "revolution" is, after all, only
a fine name for the failure or refusal of the rulers of a country to
persist in executing laws which the bulk of the population find
obnoxious. When the popular hostility to the law is strong enough to
make its execution impossible, as it was in New York in the rent affair,
it is acce