could scarcely have been said to have conquered, for they barely held it
from day to day at the point of the sword. Morally Ireland was never
conquered, for he would be a bold man who dared to say that the Irish
people ever submitted nationally to the English Church established by
law. In fact, so rash does the attempt seem even to those who most
desire to make it, that they are fain to find refuge and consolation in
the supposed introduction of Protestantism into Ireland by St. Patrick,
a thousand years and more before that modern phase of religious thought
appeared to divide the Christian world.

But I deny that Ireland has ever been really conquered; and even should
the most sanguinary suggestions proposed in a nineteenth-century serial
be carried out, I am certain she could not be. Ireland has never been
permanently subdued by Dane or Norman, Dutchman or Saxon; nor has she
ever been _really_ united to England. A man is surely not united to a
jailer because he is bound to him by an iron chain which his jailer has
forged for his safe keeping. This is not union; and the term "United
Kingdom" is in fact a most miserable misnomer. Unity requires something
more than a mere material approximation. I believe it to be _possible_
that England and Ireland may become united; and if ever this should be
accomplished, let no man forget that the first link in the golden chain
issued from the hands of the right honorable member for South
Lancashire, when he proposed equality of government on religious
questions--the first step towards that equality of government which
alone can effect a moral union of the two countries. It might be
treasonable to hint that some noble-hearted men, who loved their country
not wisely but too well, and who are paying in lifelong anguish the
penalty of their patriotism, had anything to do with the formation of
this golden chain--so I shall not hint it.