A lawyer irritated by the folly of popular declamation is tempted to
dismiss all objections to Coercion Acts, together with all arguments
founded upon such objections, with one peremptory remark--namely, that
since a law is merely a rule which men are compelled to obey by the
power of the State, and Coercion is but another name for compulsory
obedience to the law, to object to Coercion is in reality to object to
law itself, or in effect to the existence of political society. The
temptation to cut down a popular delusion by some such summary criticism
as this is great, but it is a temptation which at all costs must be
resisted. Vague ideas, which have obtained general currency, are, in
spite of their inaccuracy, the outgrowth for the most part of reasonable
feeling. Whoever wishes to meet, and, if need be, dispel the antipathy
to Coercion Acts, must try to understand what is the meaning which
sensible men attach to the word "Coercion," what is the conviction
represented by the dislike to Coercion Acts, how this dislike may be
lessened, and, for the purpose with which these pages are written, how
far the disapproval of Coercion Acts provides a reason in favour of Home
Rule.

Of all the terms which at the present moment confuse public judgment,
none is more vague and misleading than the word "Coercion" when applied
to every stringent attempt to enforce in Ireland obedience to the law of
the land.

Coercion means and includes two different though closely connected ideas
which the laxity of popular thought fails to distinguish.

_First_.--Coercion means any attempt to enforce a law among people whose
moral sympathies are at variance with the law itself. In this sense
Coercion is opposed to that enforcement of ordinary law with which we