m. On the women of Limerick, see Rev. James Dowd, Limerick
and its Sieges (Limerick, 1890). For the women under Cromwellian
Plantation persecutions and the Penal Laws, see Prendergast's
Cromwellian Settlement, Rev. Denis Murphy's Cromwell in Ireland, and
R. R. Madden's History of the Penal Laws.

IRISH NATIONALITY

By LORD ASHBOURNE

[NOTE.--This chapter was written by Lord Ashbourne in French, because
he is so strong an Irishman that he objects to write in English. The
translation has been made by the Editors.]

To those of us who are interested in the future of our country there
is at this very moment presented a really serious problem. The
political struggle of the last century has been so intense that many
of our people have come to have none but a political solution in
view. For them the whole question is one of politics, and they will
continue to believe that Ireland will have found salvation the moment
we get Home Rule or something like it. Such an attitude seems natural
enough when we remember what our people have suffered in the past.
Nevertheless, on a little reflection, this error--for error it is,
and an enormous one, too--will be quickly dissipated. In the first
place, the political struggle of today is only the continuation of a
conflict which has lasted seven hundred years, and in point of fact
we have a right to be proud that after so many trials there still
remains to us anything of our national inheritance. We find ourselves
indeed on the battlefield somewhat seriously bruised, but we can
console ourselves with the thought that our opponent is in equally
doleful case, that he is beginning to suffer from a fatal weariness,
and that he is anxious to make peace with us.

In order to place the present political situation in its true light
and to take into account its comparatively limited importance, we
must not lose sight of the fundamental fact that what Home Rule
connotes is rather a tender of peace on the part of Ireland than a
gift which England presents us of her own free will. In fact, our
neighbor across the Channel has as much interest as ourselves, and
perhaps even more, in bringing the struggle to an end. Through us,
England has already lost much prestige, and that famous British
Constitution, which in times past everyone admired while trying in
vain to imitate it, has lost caste considerably. I am not now
speaking of the danger which an Ireland discontented, and even
hostile, and