To arrest these influences before they bring on in Ireland a social crash, the effects of which must be felt far beyond the boundaries of that country, is a matter of primary importance, doubtless, to the British people.

It is a matter, too, of hardly less than primary importance to the people of my own country.

Unfortunately it does not rest with us to devise or to apply an efficient check to these influences.
That rests with the people of Great Britain, so long as they insist that Ireland shall remain an integral portion of the British dominions.

I do not see how they can acquit themselves of this responsibility, or escape the consequences of evading it, solely by devising the most ingenious machinery of local administration for Ireland, or the most liberal schemes for fostering the material interests of the Irish people.

Such things, of course, must in due time be attended to.