Question would be settled in the not distant future by the disappearance
of the Irish. Had we not better look around and see how other countries
with more or less analogous conditions fared? Could we not--Unionists
and Nationalists alike--do something towards material progress without
abandoning our ideals? Could we not learn something from a study of what
our people were doing abroad? One seemed to hear the voice of Bishop
Berkeley, the biting pertinence of whose _Queries_ is ever fresh, asking
from the grave in which he had been laid to rest nearly a century and a
half ago 'whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than
complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?'

These questionings, though not generally heard on the platform or even
in the street, were none the less working in the depths of the Irish
mind, and found expression not so much in words as in deeds. Yet though
the downfall of Parnell released many minds from the obsession of
politics, the influence of that event was of a negative character, and
it took time to produce a beneficial effect. That fruitful last decade
of the nineteenth century saw the foundation of what will some day be
recognised as a new philosophy of Irish progress. Certain new principles
were then promulgated in Ireland, and gradually found acceptance; and
upon those principles a new movement was built. It is partly, indeed, to
expound and justify some, at any rate, of the principles and to give an
intelligible account of the practical achievement and future
possibilities of this movement that I write these pages.

For English readers, to whom this introductory chapter is chiefly
addressed, I may here reiterate the opinion, which I have always held
and often expressed, that there is no real conflict of interest between
the two peoples and the two countries, and that the mutual
misunderstanding which we may now hope to see removed is due to a wide