blames the vacillation of Louis, who failed to put forth his strength,
to establish James upon the throne of Ireland and thus by a successful
act of perpetual separation to _affaiblir le voisin_. Napoleon,
too late, in St. Helena, realized his error: "Had I gone to Ireland
instead of to Egypt the Empire of England was at an end."

With these two utterances of the French writer and of the French ruler
we begin and end the reference of Ireland to European affairs which
continental statecraft has up to now emitted, and so far has failed to
apply.

To-day there is probably no European thinker (although Germany
produced one in recent times), who, when he faces the over-powering
supremacy of Great Britain's influence in world affairs and the
relative subordination of European rights to the asserted interests
of that small island, gives a thought to the other and smaller island
beyond its shores. And yet the key to British supremacy lies there.
Perhaps the one latter day European who perceived the true relation of
Ireland to Great Britain was Neibuhr.

"Should England," he said, "not change her conduct, Ireland may still
for a long period belong to her, but not always; and the loss of that
country is the death day, not only to her greatness, but of her very
existence."

I propose to point out as briefly as may be possible in dealing
with so unexpected a proposition, that the restoration of Ireland to
European life lies at the bottom of all successful European effort to
break the bonds that now shackle every continental people that would
assert itself and extend its ideals, as opposed to British interests,