_The argument from foreign experience_.--Home Rule under one shape or
another has been tried in a large number of foreign countries, and has
(it is alleged) been found everywhere to solve the problem of combining
into one State communities which, like England and Ireland, were not
ready to coalesce into one united nation. Each State throughout the
American Union, each Canton of Switzerland, has something like sovereign
independence. Yet the United States are strong and prosperous, and the
Swiss Confederacy, which was a land at one time torn by religious
animosities, and divided by differences of race, is now a country so
completely at harmony with itself that without a regular army it
maintains its independence in the face of the armed powers of Europe.
Canada or Victoria have more complete liberty of action than any one
dreams of claiming for Ireland. Yet Canada and Victoria are loyal, and
under the guidance of men who, it may be, were yesterday rebels in
Ireland, support the supremacy of the British Parliament and contribute
to the splendour of the English Crown. The German Empire contains not
only separate States, but separate kingdoms, such as Bavaria, ruled by
kings or princes who certainly value highly the independence of their
countries and the dignity of their thrones. The despotism of Turkey has
not forbidden the local independence of Crete, and self-government has,
it is hinted, produced acquiescence in Turkish rule. The autocracy of
the Czar is found compatible with Home Rule in Finland, and Finland is
the most contented portion of Russia. Norway and Sweden are united in
feeling because they are not by law a "united kingdom," and act in
harmony just because each country has a different constitution, and each
is governed by its own Parliament. Denmark has, with benefit to herself,
given local independence to Iceland, and Iceland is content. Austria and
Hungary, after centuries of misunderstanding and twenty years of bitter
conflict, have finally composed the feud of ages by a compromise, which