An Ireland released from the jail in which England had confined
her would soon become a populous State of possibly 10,000,000 to
12,000,000 people, a commercial asset of Europe in the Atlantic of the
utmost general value, one holding an unique position between the Old
and New Worlds, and possibly an intellectual and moral asset of no
mean importance. This, and more, a sovereign Ireland means to Europe.
Above all it means security of transit, equalizing of opportunity,
freedom of the seas--an assurance that the great waterways of the
ocean should no longer be at the absolute mercy of one member of the
European family, and that one the least interested in general European
welfare.

The stronger a free Ireland grew the surer would be the guarantee that
the rôle of England "consciously assumed for many years past, to be
an absolute and wholly arbitrary judge of war and peace" had gone for
ever, and that at last the "balance of power" was kept by fair weight
and fair measure and not with loaded scales.




Chapter IV

THE ENEMY OF PEACE


I believe England to be the enemy of European peace, and that until
her "mastery of the sea" is overmastered by Europe, there can be
no peace upon earth or goodwill among men. Her claim to rule the
seas, and the consequences, direct and indirect, that flow from its