however keen the feelings of partisanship which it may arouse, is always
in itself capable of being looked at from a logical or abstract point of
view, and ought to be so looked at by jurists. To one class indeed among
the advocates of Home Rule the fundamental principle contended for in
these pages will appear irrelevant to the points at issue between such
Home Rulers and their opponents. Nationalists, who still occupy the
position held in 1848 by Sir Gavan Duffy and his friends, and who either
openly contend for the right of Ireland to be an independent nation, or
accept Home Rule (as they may with perfect fairness) simply as a step
towards the independence of their country, are naturally and rightly
unaffected by reasoning which shows, however conclusively, that Home
Rule may be as injurious to England as a complete severance of the
political connection between England and Ireland. A Nationalist may say
with justice that he is no more bound to consider whether England will
or will not be damaged by Ireland's becoming a nation, than an Italian
patriot was bound, in 1859, to show that Austria would not suffer by
being deprived of Lombardy or of Venetia; he accepts Home Rule on the
maxim that half a loaf is better than no bread, but a starving man is
not required to refuse the offer of food because the donor cannot make
the gift without getting into debt; nor does the acceptance of half a
loaf afford the least presumption that the recipient would not prefer a
whole loaf if he could get it. Some indeed of the considerations which
tell in the eyes of an Englishman against Home Rule may indirectly lead
an Irish Nationalist to the belief that the boon of legislative
independence, if granted to Ireland, would prove the present of a stone
in reply to a prayer for bread. But should a Nationalist be convinced
that no form of Home Rule would benefit Ireland, he would cling all the
more firmly to the faith that her salvation depends upon her taking her
place among independent states. To Nationalists, therefore, even though
at present they may be fighting the cause of Irish nationality behind