When at last the parliamentary independence of Ireland had led up to a savage rebellion, suppressed I fear with savage severity, English statesmen knew that an independent Irish Parliament threatened the existence of England.

I may be allowed, even by Gladstonians, to place the genius and patriotism of Pitt on at least a level with the genius and patriotism of the present Premier.

I may be allowed to doubt whether Mr.Gladstone's studies, however profound, in the history of Ireland, can, in 1893, render his acquaintance with the circumstances and the dangers of 1800 equal to the knowledge of the Minister who, in 1800, carried the Act of Union.

And Pitt then held that the Union with Ireland was necessary for the preservation of England.

If moreover Grattan's Constitution be a precedent for our guidance, let us see to what the precedent points.