vaded, and a panel hostile to
the accused is most frequently secured.

The natural protection by which the balance is artificially redressed
when the application of the laws has not the sympathy of those who are
subject to them is a common symptom in every country and every age. When
all felonies were capital offences in England, the wit of juries, by
what Blackstone called "a kind of pious perjury," was engaged in
devising means by which those who were legally guilty could escape from
the penalty; and if it be true that an unpacked jury would possibly in
many instances of political offences in Ireland have a prejudice in
favour of the accused, the inference is not consequently to be drawn
that the ends of justice can only be secured by substituting, as is
done, a jury which has a prejudice against him. It is not by methods
like these that are inspired sentiments, such as those which prompted
Victor Hugo eloquently to describe a tribunal:--"Ou dans l'obscurite, la
laideur, et la tristesse, se degageait une impression austere et
auguste. Car on y sentait cette grande chose humaine qu'on appelle la
loi, et cette grande chose divine qu'on appelle la justice."

CHAPTER II

THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

"It will not do to deny the obligation. The case (of Ireland's
alleged over-taxation) has been heard before a competent
tribunal, established and set up by England. The verdict has
been delivered; it is against England and in favour of
Ireland's contention. Until this verdict is set aside by a
higher court, and a more competent tribunal, the obligation of
England to Ireland stands proved."

--T.W. RUSSELL, _Ireland and the Empire_.

The contrast between the history of Great Britain and that of Ireland
during the last century--in the one case showing progress and
prosperity, advancing, it is not too much to say, by leaps and bounds,
and in the other a stagnation which was relatively, if not absolutely,
retrograde--is one of the most dismal factors in English politics. Those
who would explain it by natural, racial, or religious considerations are
probing too deep for an explanation which is in reality much closer at
hand. If the external forces in the two countries throughout that period
had been the same it would be right and proper to search for an
explanation in such directions as have been named, but that these forces
have not been so distri