achievement and of the greatness of our future place.


V


Is it not the dream of earnest men of all parties to have an end to our
long war, a peace final and honourable, wherein the soul of the country
can rest, revive and express itself; wherein poetry, music and art will
pour out in uninterrupted joy, the joy of deliverance, flashing in
splendour and superabundant in volume, evidence of long suppression?
This is the dream of us all. But who can hope for this final peace while
any part of our independence is denied? For, while we are connected in
any shape with the British Empire the connection implies some
dependence; this cannot be gainsaid; and who is so foolish as to expect
that there will be no collision with the British Parliament, while
there is this connection implying dependence on the British Empire? If
such a one exists he goes against all experience and all history. On
either side of the connection will be two interests--the English
interest and the Irish interest, and they will be always at variance.
Consider how parties within a single state are at variance,
Conservatives and Radicals, in any country in Europe. The proposals of
one are always insidious, dangerous or reactionary, as the case may be,
in the eyes of the other; and in no case will the parties agree; they
will at times even charge each other with treachery; there is never
peace. It is the rule of party war. Who, then, can hope for peace where
into the strife is imported a race difference, where the division is not
of party but of people? That is in truth the vain hope. And be it borne
in mind the race difference is not due to our predominating Gaelic
stock, but to the separate countries and to distinct households in the