But why not postpone the case of Ireland until a
scheme of Home Rule all round either for the United Kingdom or for the
whole Empire has been worked out? We answer that Ireland comes first on
grounds both of ethics and of expediency. Through all the blackness of
dismal years we have laboured to preserve the twin ideas of nationality
and autonomy, and the labourer is worthy of his hire. But a Home Rule
assembly, functioning in Dublin, may well furnish the germ of a
reorganisation of the Empire. If so, let it be remembered that it was
not Mr Chamberlain but Daniel O'Connell who first in these countries
gave to Imperialism a definite and articulate form. In any event Home
Rule is the only remedy for the present congestion of St Stephen's. It
is the only tonic that can restore to English public life its old vigour
of independence.
Such are the necessities and such is the future of the Empire merely as
a problem in what has been called Political Mechanics. We have now, from
the same point of view, to examine very cursorily the present government
of Ireland.
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