Nationalism, which is a form of democratic revolt suppressed so long and
by such harsh methods as to exhibit features easily open to criticism.
But the gist of his argument would have applied just as well to the
political evolution of the self-governing Colonies. Indeed, if he had
lived to see the last Imperial Conference, the pessimism of so clear a
thinker would assuredly have given way before the astounding contrast
between those countries in which his political philosophy had been
abjured, and the only white country in the Empire where by sheer force
it had been maintained intact.

If my only object in writing were to contribute something toward the
dissipation of the fears and doubts which render it so hard to carry any
measure, however small, of Home Rule for Ireland, I should hope for
little success. Practical men, with a practical decision to make, rarely
look outside the immediate facts before them. Extremists, in a case like
that of Ireland, are reluctant to take account of what Lord Morley
calls "the fundamental probabilities of civil society." Sir Edward
Carson would be more than human if he were to be influenced by a
demonstration that the case he makes against Home Rule is the same as
that made by the minority leaders, not only in the French, but in the
British Province of Canada. Most of the minority to which he appeals
would now regard as an ill-timed paradox the view that the very vigour
of their opposition to Home Rule is a better omen for the success of
Home Rule than that kind of sapless Nationalism, astonishingly rare in
Ireland under the circumstances, which is inclined to yield to the
insidious temptation of setting the "eleemosynary benefits"--to use Mr.
Walter Long's phrase[3]--derived from the British connection above the
need for self-help and self-reliance. The real paradox is that any
Irishmen, Unionist or Nationalist, should tolerate advisers who, however
sincere and patriotic, avowedly regard Ireland as the parasite of Great