debates, such incidents give rise to, in Parliament, aggravate the
difficulties of administration, and lead the Irish people to believe
that exceptional legislation will be as short-lived in the future as it
has been in the past.

It was this evidence of want of continuity of policy in 1885, and the
startling disclosure of the weakness of the anti-national party in
Ireland at the election in the autumn of that year, which finally
convinced me that the time had come when we could no longer turn to a
mixed policy of remedial and exceptional criminal legislation as the
means of winning the constituencies of that country in support of our
old system of governing Ireland. That system has failed for eighty-six
years, and obviously cannot succeed when worked with representative
institutions. As the people of Great Britain will not for a moment
tolerate the withdrawal of representative government from Ireland, we
must adopt some new plan. What I have here written deals with but a
fragment of the arguments for Home Rule, some of which are admirably set
forth by the able men who have written the articles to which this is the
preface. I earnestly wish that they may arrest the attention of many
excellent Irishmen who still cling to the old traditions of English
rule, and cause them to realize that the only way of relieving their
country from the intolerable uncertainty which hangs over her
commercial, social, and political interests and paralyzes all efforts
for the improvement of her people, will be to form a Constitution
supported by all classes of the community. I trust that they will join
in this work before it is too late, for they may yet exercise a powerful
and salutary influence in the settlement of this great question.

FOOTNOTES: