anti-national character can be expected.

It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to find any Municipal
Council, Boards of Guardians, or Local Boards, in Leinster, Munster, or
Connaught, whose members do not consist of a majority of Nationalists.
At nearly all such assemblies, whenever any important political movement
takes place in the country, or when the Irish Government take any action
which is displeasing to the Nationalists, resolutions are discussed and
carried in a spirit of sharp hostility to the Government.

In Parliamentary elections we also find clear evidence of the strength
of the Nationalists, and the extreme weakness of their opponents. This
is a test which those who accept popular representative government
cannot disregard, particularly at an election when for the first time
the new constituencies were called upon to exercise the privileges
entrusted to them by Parliament. Such was the election of 1885, followed
in 1886 by another General Election. In 1885 contests took place in most
of the Irish constituencies. They were between Liberals allied with
Conservatives, and Parnellites. In 1886 the contests were between those
who called themselves Unionists and Parnellites, and the Irish policy of
Mr. Gladstone was specially referred to the electors.

In regard to the number of members returned on the two sides, the result
of each election was almost identical, but in 1886 there were fewer
contests. We may, then, assume that the relative forces of Parnellites
and Unionists were accurately represented at the election of 1885. If we
take the votes at the election of 1885 for candidates standing as
Nationalists, we shall find, roughly speaking, that they obtained in
round numbers about 300,000 votes, and candidates who stood either as
Liberals or Conservatives about 143,000. But the case is really stronger