the concession to Ireland of an independent Parliament. The law which
comes from Ireland's own legislature will be obeyed because it is her
own law, and will be enforced throughout Ireland by Irish officials
supported by the sympathy of the Irish population. Let Ireland manage
her own affairs, and England will be freed from a task which she ought
never to have taken up because she cannot perform it, and you will lay
upon Ireland duties which she can perform but which she has never yet
been either allowed or compelled to take up. Irishmen for the first
time will feel the full responsibility, because for the first time they
have received the full power, of self-government. The argument, in
short, on the Home Rule view stands thus: the miseries of Ireland flow
historically from political causes, and are to be met by political
changes. At the bottom of Irish disorder lies the sentiment of Irish
nationality. The change, therefore, that is needed is such a concession
to that sentiment as is involved in giving Ireland an Irish legislature.
This is the reform by which the result of curing Irish discontent can be
achieved, and it is a reform not incompatible with the interests of
Great Britain.

This is (in my judgment) a fair statement of the historical argument
relied upon by the advocates of Home Rule, though, of course, it allows
of infinite variety as to its form of expression. It is a line of
reasoning which rests on premisses many of which (as any candid critic
must admit) contain a large amount of truth. It is logically by far the
strongest of the Home Rule arguments. It is one, moreover, in which
authorities who on other points differ from each other are in agreement.
Mr. Parnell asserts with emphasis that Ireland is a "nation," and
apparently holds that the passing of a good law by the Parliament of the
United Kingdom is less desirable than the existence of an Irish
Parliament, even should that Parliament delay good legislation. Mr.