He, at least, perceives the danger to his country of retaining Irish members in a Parliament where they had ceased to have any proper place.

'For my own part,' he says, 'I should not care if they did not attend [the Imperial Parliament] for a generation, which will be needed for the manipulation of their own affairs.' All this, I shall be told, is prophecy; Gladstonian hopes are as reasonable as Unionist fears.

So be it.

But in this matter my predictions have a special claim on the attention of the Ministry, they coincide with the forecast, or the foresight, of the present[40] Chief Secretary for Ireland.
'Let us suppose that these Irish representatives for Imperial purposes are not chosen by the legislative body, but are chosen directly by Irish constituencies.

You have already, according to our plan, two sets of constituencies.