the first robbed might be the first to repay. The Empire founded on
Ireland by Henry and Elizabeth Tudor has expanded into mighty things.
England deprived of Ireland resumes her natural proportions, those of
a powerful kingdom. Still possessing Ireland she is always an empire.
For just as Great Britain bars the gateways of northern and west
central Europe, to hold up at will the trade and block the ports of
every coast from the Baltic to the Bay of Biscay, so Ireland stands
between Britain and the greater seas of the west and blocks for
her the highways of the ocean. An Ireland strong, independent and
self-contained, a member of the European family of nations, restored
to her kindred, would be the surest guarantee for the healthy
development of European interests in those regions whence they are
to-day excluded by the anti-European policy of England.

The relation of Ireland to Great Britain has been in no wise
understood on the continent. The policy of England has been for
centuries to conceal the true source of her supplies and to prevent
an audit of transactions with the remoter island. As long ago as the
reign of Elizabeth Tudor this shutting off of Ireland from contact
with Europe was a settled point of English policy. The three "German
Earls" with letters from the Queen who visited Dublin in 1572 were
prevented by the Lord Deputy from seeing for themselves anything
beyond the walls of the city.[2]

[Footnote 2: This time-honoured British precept--that foreigners
should not see for themselves the workings of English rule in
Ireland--finds frequent expression in the Irish State Papers. In
a letter from Dublin Castle of August, 1572, from the Lord Deputy
Fitzwilliam to Burghley Elizabeth's chief Minister, we are told that
the "three German Earls" with "their conductor," Mr. Rogers, have