judicious abstinence of
the British Legislature from feverish and fussy legislation about
Ireland, with a prudent and persistent development of the material
resources of Ireland, and with a genuine co-operation of the people who
own land in Ireland with the people who wish to own land in Ireland, for
the readjustment of land-ownership, the principle of Authority in the
domain of politics may doubtless win in the conflict with the principle
of the Agrarian revolution.

But how many contingencies are here involved! Meanwhile the influences
which imperil in Ireland the principle of Authority, in the domains
alike of politics and of morals, are at work incessantly, to undermine
and deteriorate the character of the Irish people, to take the vigour
and the manhood out of them, to unfit them day by day, not only for good
citizenship in the British Empire or the United States, but for good
citizenship in any possible Ireland under any possible form of
government. To arrest these influences before they bring on in Ireland a
social crash, the effects of which must be felt far beyond the
boundaries of that country, is a matter of primary importance,
doubtless, to the British people. It is a matter, too, of hardly less
than primary importance to the people of my own country. Unfortunately
it does not rest with us to devise or to apply an efficient check to
these influences.

That rests with the people of Great Britain, so long as they insist that
Ireland shall remain an integral portion of the British dominions. I do
not see how they can acquit themselves of this responsibility, or escape
the consequences of evading it, solely by devising the most ingenious
machinery of local administration for Ireland, or the most liberal
schemes for fostering the material interests of the Irish people. Such
things, of course, must in due time be attended to. But the first duty
of a government is to govern; and I believe that Earl Grey has summed up
the situation in Ireland more concisely and more courageously than any
other British statesman in his outspoken declaration, that "in order to
avert the wreck of the nation, it is absolutely necessary that some
means or other should be found for securing to Ireland during the
present crisis a wiser and more stable administration of its affairs
than can be looked for under its existing institutions."

I have heard and read a good deal in the past of the "Three F's" thought
a panacea for Irish discont