myself from trying to reconcile Ireland to England on a basis of
freedom and justice.

I said just now that this was an important election. Yes, the effect
upon his Majesty's Government and upon the Liberal Party for good or
ill from this election cannot fail to be far-reaching. There are
strong forces against us. Do not underrate the growing strength of the
Tory reaction now in progress in many of the constituencies in
England. I say it earnestly to those who are members of the Labour
Party here to-day--do not underrate the storm which is gathering over
your heads as well as ours. I am not afraid of the forces which are
against us. With your support we shall overwhelm them--with your
support we shall bear them down. Ah, but we must have that support.

It is not the enemy in front that I fear, but the division which too
often makes itself manifest in progressive ranks--it is that division,
that dispersion of forces, that internecine struggle in the moments of
great emergency, in the moments when the issue hangs in the
balance--it is that which, I fear, may weaken our efforts and may
perhaps deprive us of success otherwise within our grasp.

There are cross-currents in this election. You cannot be unconscious
of that. They flow this way and that way, and they disturb the clear
issue which we should like to establish between the general body of
those whose desire it is to move forward, and those who wish to revert
to the old and barbarous prejudices and contentions of the past--to
the fiscal systems and to the methods of government and
administration, and to the Jingo foreign policies across the seas,
from which we hoped we had shaken ourselves clear.