never demanded from the other two-thirds thereof.

[Sidenote: 2. Too much reference to interest.]

_Second objection_.--The habitual reference made throughout these pages
to national interest as the test or standard of national policy has (it
may be suggested) a touch of sordidness and selfishness, and implies
that statesmanship has nothing to do with morality.

This impression may it is possible be conveyed to a careless reader by
the form in which the case against Home Rule is stated; but no
suggestion can in reality be more unfounded. It will be seen to be
unfounded by any one who notes for a moment the meaning of the term
"interest" as applied to matters of national policy. The interest or the
welfare of a nation comprises many things which have nothing to do with
trade or with wealth, and the value of which does not admit of being
measured in money. The interest, welfare, or prosperity of England
includes the maintenance of her honour, the performance of all her
obligations, and, above all, the strict discharge of every engagement
which she has undertaken towards countries or to individuals. The
protection, for example, of law-abiding citizens in the enjoyment of
rights secured to them by law; the maintenance of peace throughout the
length and breadth of the Empire; the suppression of lawlessness; the
strict performance of every promise which the State has made to every
man or body of men, whether poor or rich, whether belonging to the class
of labourers, of farmers, or even of landlords--the rendering, in short,
to every man of his due--are things which without any improper extension
of the term interest fall under the head of national interests.
Utilitarianism, in truth, being a body of principles applicable
primarily to legislation and only secondarily to ethics, its doctrines