Page:Abolition of the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.djvu/13

9 plainest justification of such a step was to be found in the Railway Time Tables. The first flying steam-ship from Holyhead,—the first train that shot through the Britannia tube,—were the last feathers in the scale which has been gradually trembling more and more with the doom of a local Irish Government. But is the mere convenience of dispensing with that separate and distant machinery the only advantage which the change may be made to afford? Scarcely any one, I think, who has any knowledge on the subject, will be found to deny, that when once such an alteration has been rendered possible by the march of these improvements, its adoption must involve,—and the method of its consummation should be determined with reference to,—very different and far more important considerations.

I look upon the consolidation of Irish and English Governments, as an operation of the highest moment, and, I believe, of the greatest value and promise to both countries. It is a step in the gradual realization of that true and practical union which consists in an identification of nationality and of interests, and which has so often been pronounced, by the greatest of political authorities of various classes, to be the true end and aim of all wise legislation on the subject. If we withdraw the Irish Government from Ireland, and put an end to its separate local existence,—surely we should place its management as a portion of the general