read and write ought to remain in Ireland. If Ireland were an
independent country, in the present state of things there would be a
bloody insurrection in every county, and the peasantry would ultimately
obtain the property in land, as _they have obtained it in Switzerland
and in France_." That the Irish people will eventually become the
masters of the Irish property, from which every effort has been made to
dispossess them, by fair means and by foul, since the Norman invasion of
Ireland, I have not the slightest doubt. The only doubt is whether the
matter will be settled by the law or by the sword. But I have hope that
the settlement will be peaceful, when I find English members of
Parliament treating thus of the subject, and ministers declaring, at
least when they are out of office, that something should be done for
Ireland.

Mr. Stuart Mill writes: "The land of Ireland, the land of every country,
belongs to the people of that country. The individuals called landowners
have no right, in morality or justice, to anything but the rent, or
compensation for its saleable value. When the inhabitants of a country
quit the country _en masse_, because the Government will not make it a
place fit for them to live in, the Government is judged and condemned,
It is the duty of Parliament to reform the landed tenure of Ireland."

More than twenty years ago Mr. Disraeli said: "He wished to see a public
man come forward and say what the Irish question was. Let them consider
Ireland as they would any other country similarly circumstanced. They
had a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, an alien Church,
and, in addition, the weakest executive in the world. This was the Irish
question. What would gentlemen say on hearing of a country in such a
position? They would say at once, in such case, the remedy is
revolution--not the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. But the