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The words which I have italicised are an expression of opinion; but nothing can alter the damning statement of fact–“legal union has failed to secure moral union.” Nevertheless, Mr. Dicey advocates the maintenance of this legal union as it stands.

“On the whole, then, it appears that, whatever changes or calamities the future may have in store, the maintenance of the Union is at this day the one sound policy for England to pursue. It is sound because it is expedient; it is sound because it is just.”[57]

I shall not discuss the question of Home Rule with the eminent writers whose works I have cited. It is enough that they demonstrate the failure of the Union. So convinced was Mr. Lecky, in 1871, of its failure, that he suggested a readjustment of the relations of the two countries on a federal basis;[58] and Mr. Goldwin Smith, in 1868, contended that the Irish difficulty could only be settled by the establishment of Provincial Councils, and an occasional session of the Imperial Parliament in Dublin. Mr. Dicey clings to the existing Union while demonstrating its failure, because he has persuaded himself that the only alternative is separation.

Irishmen may be pardoned for acting on Mr. Dicey’s facts, and disregarding his prophecies. The mass of Irishmen believe, with Grattan, that the ocean protests against separation as the sea protests against such a union as was attempted in 1800.[59]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 26: Omissions here and elsewhere are merely for purposes of space. In some places the omitted parts would strengthen the Irish case; in no place would they weaken it.]

[Footnote 27: Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, new edit. (1871), Introduction, pp. viii., xiv.]

[Footnote 28: Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, new edit. (1871), Introduction, pp. xiv., xv.]

[Footnote 29: Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60.]

[Footnote 30: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 33, 34.]

[Footnote 31: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 120-123.]

[Footnote 32: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 125, 126.]

[Footnote 33: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 34-37.]

[Footnote 34: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 134-137.]

[Footnote 35: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 192-195.]

[Footnote 36: Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 195, 196.]

[Footnote 37: Goldwin Smith, Three English Statesmen, p. 274.]

[Footnote 38: Irish History and Irish Character, pp. 13, 14.]

[Footnote 39: Ibid., p. 194.]

[Footnote 40: Ibid., p. 142.]

[Footnote 41: Irish History and Irish Character, p. 101.]

[Footnote 42: Irish History and Irish Character, pp. 139, 140.]

[Footnote 43: Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Irish Disturbances, p. 97.]

[Footnote 44: Irish History and Irish Character, pp. 153-157.]

[Footnote 45: Ibid., pp. 70, 71]

[Footnote 46: The Irish Question, Preface, pp. iii., iv.]

[Footnote 47: The Irish Question, pp. 3-5.]

[Footnote 48: Ibid., p. 6.]

[Footnote 49: Ibid., p. 7.]

[Footnote 50: The Irish Question, pp. 7-9.]

[Footnote 51: Irish Question, p. 10.]

[Footnote 52: The Irish Question, pp. 16-18.]

[Footnote 53: Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, p. 128.]

[Footnote 54: Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 72-74.]

[Footnote 55: Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 92-94.–The foreigner is De Beaumont.]

[Footnote 56: Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule, pp. 151, 152.]

[Footnote 57: Ibid., p. 288.]

[Footnote 58: I hope I am not doing Mr. Lecky an injustice in this statement. I rely on the extract quoted from the Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, at p. 176 of this volume; but see Introduction, p. xix.]

[Footnote 59: Irish House of Commons, January 15th, 1800.]