CHAPTER I.
AN EXERCISE IN HUMILITY In order to understand Ireland we must begin by understanding England.
On no other terms will that complex of facts, memories, and passions, which is called the Irish Question, yield up its secret.

"You have always been," said a Lady Clanricarde to some English politician, "like a high wall standing between us and the sun." The phrase lives.

It reveals in a flashlight of genius the historical relations of the two nations.

It explains and justifies the principle adopted as the basis of this discussion, namely, that no examination of the Irish Problem is possible without a prior examination of the English mind.

It used to be said that England dearly loved a Lord, a dictum which may have to be modified in the light of recent events.