trust, and the other may be freed from those illusive dreams and
demoralising hopes which destroy the manlier efforts after self-help
in the present for that universal amelioration to be found in the
coming of the cocklicranes in the future.

There is, however, a good work quietly going on which will touch the
evil root of things in time, but not in the sense of the Home Rulers
and Campaigners. This good work will render it unnecessary to follow
the advice of that rough and ready politician who saw no way out of
the wood save to "send to Hell for Oliver Cromwell"; also that of the
facetious Dove who winked as he offered his olive branch:--"Shure the
best way to pacify Oireland is for the Queen to marry Parnell." A more
practicable method than either is silently making headway against the
elements of disorder; and in spite of the upsetters and their
opposition the rough things will be made smooth, and, the troubled
waters will run clear, if only the Government of order may be allowed
time to do its beneficent work of repression and re-establishment
thoroughly and to the roots.




II.


In politics, as in nature, beneficent powers work quietly, while
destructive agencies sweep across the world with noise and tumult. The
fruit tree grows in silence; the tempest which uproots it shakes the
earth to its centre. The gradual evolution of society in the
development of art, the softening of manners, the equalization of