blank page to the English. In January, 1886, one found scarce any
politicians who had ever heard of the Irish Parliament of 1782. And in
that year, 1886, an Englishman anxious to discover the real state of the
country did not know where to go for information. What appeared in the
English newspapers, or, rather, in the one English newspaper which keeps
a standing "own correspondent" in Dublin, was (as it still is) a grossly
and almost avowedly partisan report, in which opinions are skilfully
mixed with so-called facts, selected, consciously or unconsciously, to
support the writer's view. The Nationalist press is, of course, not less
strongly partisan on its own side, so that not merely an average
Englishman, but even the editor of an English newspaper, who desires to
ascertain the true state of matters and place it before his English
readers, has had, until within the last few months, when events in
Ireland began to be fully reported in Great Britain, no better means at
his disposal for understanding Ireland than for understanding Bulgaria.
I do not dwell upon this ignorance as an argument for Home Rule, though,
of course, it is often so used. I merely wish to explain the
bewilderment in which Englishmen found themselves when required to
settle by their votes a question of immense difficulty. Many, on both
sides, simply followed their party banners. Tories voted for Lord
Salisbury; thorough-going admirers of Mr. Gladstone voted for Mr.
Gladstone. But there was on the Liberal side a great mass who were
utterly perplexed by the position. Contradictory statements of fact, as
well as contradictory arguments, were flung at their heads in
distracting profusion. They felt themselves unable to determine what was
true and who was right. But one thing seemed clear to them. The policy
of Home Rule was a new policy. They had been accustomed to censure and
oppose it. Only nine months before, the Irish Nationalists had
emphasized their hostility to the Liberal party by doing their utmost to
defeat Liberal candidates in English constituencies. Hence, when it was
proclaimed that Home Rule was the true remedy which the Liberal party
must accept, they were startled and discomposed.

Now, the English are not a nimble-minded people. They cannot, to use a
familiar metaphor, turn round in their own length. Their momentum is
such as to carry them on for some distance in the direction wherein they
have been moving, even after the order to stop h