It was a cry for the land which gave force to the demand for Home Rule; and an Irish agitator, if his strength fails, renews it by touching the earth.

But why confine our observation to Ireland?
We here come upon the passions, not of Irish nature, but of human nature.

There is not a landowner in France who does not care tenfold more for the security of his land than for the form of the government.

If peasants trembled for their property the Republic would fall to-morrow.

This is no mere conjecture; the peasantry were Jacobins as long as the Jacobins gave them the land, they were Imperialists whilst Napoleon was their security against a restoration which to them meant confiscation of land purchased or seized during the Revolution.