80.
[3] De Beaumont's opinions on this point are perfectly clear: they represent the judgment of an extremely able thinker, who approaches the problems presented by Irish society with an impartiality which from the nature of things is unattainable by any Englishman or Irishman.

His utterances will moreover command the more respect from the consideration that De Beaumont, belonging as he did to the school of his intimate friend De Tocqueville, was inclined rather to overrate than to underrate the virtues of self-government; whilst as a Frenchman he possessed a knowledge which cannot fall to any Englishman of the benefits conferred upon the people by a good administration of the French type.

The following extracts from a chapter too long for complete citation, which is written to show that Ireland needs a centralised government, deserve the most careful attention.

The whole chapter, and indeed the whole work to which it belongs, ought at the present moment to be familiar to every English Liberal:-- "_Pour detruire le pouvoir politique de l'aristocratie, il faudrait lui oter l'application quotidienne des lois, comme on l'a privee precedemment adu pouvoir de les faire.

Il faudrait, par consequent, modifier profondement le systeme administratif et judiciaire qui repose sur l'institution des juges de paix et sur l'organisation des grands jurys, tels qu'ils sont constitues aujourd'hui.