Ah, but, a very sad thing has happened; an awful thing has
happened--the Liberal Party has gone in for Home Rule. _The Scotsman_
is shocked, _The Times_ is speechless, and takes three columns to
express its speechlessness; _The Spectator_, that staid old weekly,
has wobbled back to where it never should have wobbled from; the
Ulster Unionists declare that the Government has forfeited all the
confidence that they never had in it, and thousands of people who
never under any circumstances voted Liberal before are saying that
under no circumstances will they ever vote Liberal again. And I am
supposed to be responsible for this revolution in our policy.

Why, the statements I have made on the Irish question are the logical
and inevitable consequence of the Resolution which was passed by the
House of Commons, in which every member of the Government voted, which
was carried by an enormous majority--more than 200--a month ago[9]--a
Resolution which, after explaining the plain and lamentable evils
which can be traced to the existing system of government in Ireland,
affirmed that the remedy for those evils would be found in a
representative body with an Executive responsible to it, subject to
the supreme authority of the Imperial Parliament.

The Irish question at the present time occupies a vastly different
position to what it did in the year 1886. Ever since 1880 the
attention of Parliament has been devoted constantly to Ireland, and
the attention of Parliament, when devoted constantly to one object, is
rarely fruitless. The twenty-five years that have passed have seen
great changes in Ireland. We have seen a great scheme of local
government, which Lord Salisbury said would be more disastrous than
Home Rule itself, actually put into force. We have seen the scheme of
land purchase, which in the year 1886 did more to injure the Home Rule