Britain; who appeal to the lower nature of her people; to the fears of
one section and the cupidity of both; advising Unionists to rely on
British power and all Irishmen on British alms. A day will come when the
humiliation will be seen in its true light. Even now, I do venture to
appeal to that small but powerful group of moderate Irish Unionists who,
so far from fearing revenge or soliciting charity, spend their whole
lives in the noble aim of uniting Irishmen of all creeds on a basis of
common endeavour for their own economic and spiritual salvation; who
find their work checked in a thousand ways by the perpetual maintenance
of a seemingly barren and sentimental agitation; who distrust both the
parties to this agitation; but who are reluctant to accept the view
that, without the satisfaction of the national claim, and without the
national responsibility thereby conferred, their own aims can never be
fully attained. I should be happy indeed if I could do even a little
towards persuading some of these men that they mistake cause and effect;
misinterpret what they resent; misjudge where they distrust, and in
standing aloof from the battle for legislative autonomy, unconsciously
concede a point--disinterested, constructive optimists as they are--to
the interested and destructive pessimism which, from Clare's savage
insults to Mr. Walter Long's contemptuous patronage, has always lain at
the root of British policy towards Ireland.

In the meantime, for those who like or dislike it, Home Rule is
imminent. We are face to face no longer with a highly speculative, but
with a vividly practical problem, raising legislative and administrative
questions of enormous practical importance, and next year we shall be
dealing with this problem in an atmosphere of genuine reality totally
unlike that of 1886, when Home Rule was a startling novelty to the
British electorate, or of 1893, when the shadow of impending defeat
clouded debate and weakened counsel. It would be pleasant to think that