a Government,
and I desire especially on grounds of public policy that it should be
dealt with by the present Government. If, therefore, they bring in a
proposal after settling the whole question of the future government of
Ireland my desire will be, reserving, of course, necessary freedom, to
treat it in the same spirit in which I have endeavoured to proceed in
respect to Afghanistan and with respect to the Balkan Peninsula."

To this statesmanlike offer Mr Balfour immediately replied:

"I have had as yet no opportunity of showing your letter to Lord
Salisbury or of consulting him as to its contents, but I am sure he
will receive without any surprise the statement of your earnest hope
that the Irish Question should not fall into the lines of Party
conflict. If the ingenuity of any Ministry is sufficient to devise
some adequate and lasting remedy for the chronic ills of Ireland, I am
certain it will be the wish of the leaders of the Opposition, to
whatever side they may belong, to treat the question as a national and
not as a Party one."

And not less clear or emphatic were the views of Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, spoken on 23rd December 1885, as to the
feasibility of settling the Irish problem by Consent:

"On one point I may state my views with tolerable clearness. In my
opinion the best plan of dealing with the Irish Question would be for
the leaders of the two great parties to confer together for the
purpose of ascertaining whether some _modus vivendi_ could not be
arrived at by which the matter would be raised out of the area of
party strife."

It will thus be seen that at a very early stage indeed of the
discussions on Home Rule, distinguished statesmen were agreed that the
ideal way of settling the Irish Question was by an arrangement or
understanding between the two great British parties--otherwise by
those methods of Conference, Conciliation and Consent which Mr William
O'Brien and Lord Dunraven were so violently and irrationally assailed
by Mr Dillon and his supporters for advocating. The great land pact
was arranged by those methods of common agreement between all parties
in Parliament--it could never have been reached otherwise. And, as
these pages will conclusively show, the "factionism" of Mr O'Brien and
those associated with him consisted in pressing a settlement by
Conference methods consistently on the notice of the leaders of all
parties. But Mr Wyndham was treated by the Dillonite section as "