agrarian life such a gospel was bound to manifest itself as one of folly
and disaster.

If we put these two elements together we are enabled to understand why
the Union land policy in Ireland was such a portentous muddle and
scandal. In 1829 the question assumed a fresh urgency, in consequence of
the eviction campaign which followed the disfranchisement of the small
holders under Catholic Emancipation. That Irish opinion, which in an
Irish Parliament would have had its way, began to grapple with the
situation.

Between 1829 and 1858 twenty-three Irish Land Reform Bills were
introduced in the House of Commons; every one was rejected. In the same
period thirty-five Coercion Bills were introduced; every one was passed.
So it began, so it continued, until at last Irish opinion did in some
measure prevail. The Westminster Parliament clapped the "agitators" into
prison, and while they were at work breaking stones stole their
programme.... But I have promised to spare the reader the detailed
hideousness of this Inferno, and this section must close without a word
said about that miserable triad, famine, eviction, and emigration. What
may be called the centre of relevancy lies elsewhere. We have been
concerned to show how Unionism, having wrecked the whole manufacturing
economy of Ireland, went on, at its worst, to wreck, at its best, to
refuse to save, its whole agricultural economy.

But why recall all this "dead history"? For two reasons: first, because
it illustrates the fundamental wrongness of Unionism; secondly, because
it is not dead.

On the first point no better authority can be found than Mr W.A.S.