was united against England. On the other hand, there was no national
Legislature; only an enslaved and unrepresentative Legislature, tempered
by a band of exceptionally brilliant and upright men, and continually
thrust forward in spite of itself into bold and independent action by
unconstitutional pressure from the unrepresented elements outside.
Success so won, as we shall see, was delusive.

We may note two important additional circumstances: first, the dense
mist of ignorance in which, and largely in consequence of which, England
began her quarrel both with America and Ireland. The average Englishman
was probably even more ignorant of Ireland, which was sixty miles away,
than of America, which was three thousand miles away. I am not at all
sure that that fact is not true still. At any rate, it was true then.
Yet knowledge of Ireland was more necessary, because her condition was
bad in ways unknown in America. In all the essentials of material
well-being, America was supremely fortunate, while Ireland was in the
depths of misery. It is not that this misery went undescribed or
unlamented, or that it was not realized by a small number of Englishmen.
Some of the most famous writings of the time, from the mordant satire of
Swift to the learned and elaborate diagnosis of Arthur Young, laid bare
the hideous ravages wrought by misrule in Ireland; but they had little
or no effect upon English statesmen, and were unread by the only classes
from which, if they had had knowledge, proper practical sympathy might
have come. Until Townshend's Viceroyalty (1767-1772) most of the Irish
Viceroys were absentees for the greater part of their term of office,
leaving the conduct of Irish affairs to English Bishops and Judges, the
wisest and most humane of whom could make little or no impression on
English official indifference. American Governors were at any rate
resident, or mainly resident, and a few were good and popular
administrators, though the information which most of them supplied to