f
the bramble" has devoured many "cedars of Lebanon," the two great
parties in the State find themselves face to face with a difficulty
which, even for the most zealous aspirant to place and power, robs the
honors and emoluments of office of more than half their charm. Neither
Liberal nor Conservative will care to incur the displeasure of the Queen
and the implacable wrath of the English aristocracy--both Whig and
Tory--by consenting to the political divorcement of Ireland, and to what
would be regarded as the disruption of the empire. For it is felt, not
without good reason, that the indirect and ultimate consequences of the
severance would be far more serious than any direct and immediate
effects. The efforts of popular statesmen, in recent times, have been
mainly directed toward the maintenance of the prestige of the Crown.
This was the sole motive of Lord Beaconsfield's "spirited foreign
policy." It was the one consideration that made the "Imperial Titles
Bill," and the imperial measures of which it proved to be the too
significant prelude, so immensely popular in London. So sure was he of
the strength and predominance of this patriotic sentiment in England
that he made his appeal almost exclusively to it, in asking in 1880 for
a fresh lease of power. The occasion was critical, he said. "The peace
of Europe, and the ascendency of England in the councils of Europe"
depended upon the verdict the country was now called upon to give. The
policy of the party opposed to his own was declared to be a "policy of
decomposition." But the concession of self-government in the form
demanded by the Irish Parliamentary party, whatever might be the
political necessity pleaded in justification of it, would be certain to
be interpreted in England, in the colonies and dependencies of the
British empire, and by all foreign States, as a sure omen of the decline
of the British Crown. To us it is utterly inconceivable that the Queen,
who is profoundly conscious of her power, keenly sensitive as to her
royal dignities, rights, and prerogatives, and proud, as she has reason
to be, of her long and prosperous reign, should ever consent to a policy
of dismemberment, by whatever political party proposed. The
Conservatives cannot afford to purchase the influence and assistance of
the Irish vote at the price Mr. Parnell has fixed and is every way
likely to insist on. They would have to belie the best traditions of the
party, and discredit the cardi