While they continue to exist, there can be no real peace in Ireland, and English prosperity must suffer in a degree from Irish disaffection.
It is generally admitted by all, except those who are specially interested in the denial, that the Land question and the Church question are the two great subjects which lie at the bottom of the Irish difficulty.

The difficulties of the Land question commenced in the reign of Henry II.; the difficulties of the Church question commenced in the reign of Henry VIII.

I shall request your attention briefly to the standpoints in Irish history from which we may take a clear view of these subjects.

I shall commence with the Land question, because I believe it to be the more important of the two, and because I hope to show that the Church question is intimately connected with it.
In the reign of Henry II., certain Anglo-Norman nobles came to Ireland, and, partly by force and partly by intermarriages, obtained estates in that country.

Their tenure was the tenure of the sword.