Ireland should or should not mean the estrangement of Irishmen.

_Thirdly_, the independence of Ireland would give England a foreign, and
possibly a hostile, neighbour along the western coast of Great Britain.
We should, for the first time since the accession of the Stuarts, occupy
a position something like that of a Continental nation, and know what it
was to have a foe, or at best a very cold friend, upon our borders. In
time of war Ireland would be the abettor or the open ally of, say, the
United States, or of France; Dublin would, unless reconquered, be the
outpost of the French Republic or of the American Union. In times of
peace things would not stand much better; our diplomacy would be
constantly occupied with the intrigues carried on in Dublin; the
possibility of attack from Ireland would necessitate the increase of our
forces; increased taxation would be drawn from a diminished population;
we should be compelled to double our army when we had lost that part of
the kingdom which used to form our best recruiting-ground. Sooner or
later England would be driven, like every Continental State, to accept
the burden of conscription, and with conscription would come essential
changes in the whole habits of English life. Nor can we count upon this
being the end of our calamities. The burden of conscription would
deprive us of our one great advantage over competitors in the struggle
for trade; an overtaxed and overburdened people could not long maintain
their mercantile pre-eminence. This is the picture which is constantly
drawn, in one shape or another, of the ruinous results to England of the
free development of Irish nationality. No one can undertake to say that
its main features are false. Still, it must be admitted that the
prophets of evil neglect to notice several facts which ought not to be
overlooked. Ireland is a poor country of about the population of
Belgium; it is occupied by a people far less wealthy than the
inhabitants of England; and, moreover, by a people divided among