A great deal has been done by them to propagate throughout Christendom a general impression that England has dismally failed to govern Ireland in the past, and is unlikely hereafter to succeed in governing Ireland.

But even granting this impression to be absolutely well founded, it by no means follows that Ireland is any more capable of governing herself than England is of governing her.

The Russians have not made a brilliant success of their administration in Poland, but the Poles certainly administered Poland no better than the Russians have done.

With an Irish representation in an Imperial British Parliament at Westminster, Ireland, under Mr.Gladstone's "base and blackguard" Union of 1800, has at least succeeded in shaking off some of the weightiest of the burdens by which, in the days of Swift, of Grattan, and of O'Connell, she most loudly declared herself to be oppressed.

Whether with a Parliament at Dublin she would have fared as well in this respect since 1800 must be a matter of conjecture merely--and it must be equally a matter of conjecture also whether she would fare any better in this respect with a Parliament at Dublin hereafter.