the Netherlands told in favour of union. Yet year by year the two
divisions of one country became more and more hostile to each other.
Fifty years of separation have, as far as appearances go, restored, or
for the first time created, feelings of friendliness between the
Belgians and the Dutch. There are to be found Belgian statesmen who
regret the proclamation of Belgian independence. When in 1881 the
Americans celebrated at Yorktown the centenary of British defeat, they
went out of their way to display their goodwill towards Great Britain.
Plaudits and toasts, it may be said, prove nothing except the existence
of a sentiment which, even if it be genuine, is certain to be
evanescent. This is true; but the matter for consideration is not
whether the feeling of friendliness towards Great Britain which found
expression daring the festivities at Yorktown would survive a conflict
of interest between England and America, but whether a condition of
feeling which allows the two nations to look calmly after their own
interests, unblinded by passion or animosity, could possibly have been
produced by the continuance of that connection between England and
America which was terminated by the surrender of Cornwallis. There is at
least no absurdity in the supposition that this question ought to be
answered in the negative, and that Americans and Englishmen are at any
rate not enemies just because a hundred years ago they ceased to be
fellow-citizens.

Let not, however, the gist of my argument be misunderstood. The possible
increase of English power, and the possible growth of goodwill between
England and Ireland, are not used as anything like reasons in favour of
Separation. They are set down simply as deductions from the immense
evils of a policy which no Englishman can regard as other than most
injurious to the whole United Kingdom. The reason why it is wise to
dwell on this kind of set-off against the ill effects of Separation is