m of electing representative peers robs us of even that
modicum of democratic peers of Parliament which Great Britain is able to
secure, and we repeat the argument of Mr. Gladstone that the distance of
Dublin from Westminster and the consequent deafness of the House of
Commons to Irish opinion is to a slight extent redressed by the small
excess--calculated on lines of proportion--which Irish representation
secures at Westminster.

At any rate one has the satisfaction of knowing where one stands in the
matter, and one is aware that one part of the Conservative programme to
be applied whenever that party returns to power is that of which someone
has spoken as the detestable principle that to keep Ireland weak is the
most convenient way of governing her. And here let me in parenthesis
remark on one fact in the conditions of Irish representation--namely,
its solidarity. It is one of the commonplaces of politics that office is
the best adhesive which a party can enjoy, and the cold shades of
opposition are apt too often to dissolve a unity which in office
appeared secure. We have seen it of late years in the demoralisation of
the Liberals, who, after the retirement of Mr. Gladstone, fell to pieces
as a party only on their resignation of office in 1895; we are seeing it
now in the disintegration of the Unionists ever since the debacle of the
general election.

There is a term which the Unionist Press is never tired of using in
connection with the Irish Party, the "fissiparous tendency" of which it
is passionately fond of dinning into English ears, regardless of the
many cleavages which have occurred in English parties in the last fifty
or even twenty years.

Those divisions which there have been in the Nationalist ranks have been
for the most part concerned, not with measures, but with men, and even
so it cannot be urged that they have been more than temporary in
duration. The strength of wrist which has been displayed during the last
eight years by Mr. John Redmond in leading the United Irish Party has
been a source of admiration to all. "You need greater qualities," said
Cardinal de Retz, "to be a party leader than to be Emperor of the
Universe." Much wisdom is demanded of an Irish leader in deciding the
tactical questions arising from the vicissitudes of British parties.
That Irish Nationalists and British Liberals do not see eye to eye on
several points of policy is well known. It may well be urged that no
better proof