THAT ENGLAND THAT WAS WONT TO CONQUER OTHERS, Now LEAN-LOOKED PROPHETS WHISPER FEARFUL CHANGE; THE OTHER, TO ENJOY BY RAGE AND WAR: THESE SIGNS FORERUN THE DEATH OR FALL OF KINGS. King Richard II. PREFATORY NOTE. THOUGH the present Monograph appears in the form of a Letter to the Prime Minister, nothing is farther from the mind of the writer than to convey the impression that the matter contained in it is to be regarded as of merely temporary, fleeting, interest and importance, and therefore to be forgotten or neglected when we possess full knowledge of the "measures" now impending. On the contrary, the object of the Author has been to bring into small compass the leading phenomena which must be studied, now and in future, by everyone interested in the solution of the Irish Problem. And although the Prime Minister of the hour is addressed, and his activity specially criticized,—yet the reader is requested to regard him as only one of a class of political nostrum-mongers with which these islands are likely to be afflicted for many a long year. May this little book tend to efface that pernicious class, and so shorten the days wherein we are to suffer adversity! Το The Right Honourable W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. SIR, "authentic In common with many thousands of Her Majesty's You request subjects I have read your extraordinary letter addressed to LORD knowledge." DE VESCI, inviting "free communication of views from the various sections most likely to supply full and authentic knowledge of the wants and wishes of the Irish people" ;--and in common with some hundreds of them I have undertaken to comply with your request. A most astounding request it is. In the first place, it seems to imply an abdication on your part of the elementary functions of statesmanship. The business of a steersman is—to steer,—of a responsible politician-to devise and carry out a policy. Again, I should have thought that the proper, the constitutional source of "full and authentic knowledge of the wants and wishes of the Irish people" would have been the hundred-andodd representatives of the Irish constituencies "duly" elected a few weeks ago to serve in the Commons' House of Parliament, and elected on a plan designed and arranged by yourself. But once more, the passage I have quoted contains an ambiguity from which few of your public utterances on the Irish Question are wholly free. The ambiguity lies in the term "Irish people." What do you mean by the "Irish people"? Again, when you have got this knowledge, "What will you do with it?" How will you test it? What would you do, suppose the weight of evidence furnished by these "various sections" should lead you to make proposals (when you come one of these days to "settle" the Irish Difficulty) that would not commend themselves to a majority of the Irish members? If, for example, you should be convinced by the arguments of the Irish Defence Union, would you hold your hand, abandon office, abandon public life altogether -rather than march in step with the party which you once B |