Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/83



influence exercised on the policy and the parties in Parliament by the union with Ireland was from the first very great, and it has been growing rather than decreasing in importance to the present time. It arose from many circumstances, and manifested itself in various ways, all of them having a tendency to disintegrate the old party organizations, and to raise questions with which the old party traditions were unable to deal. The introduction of one hundred members, nearly one-fourth of the original number, and those men not only personally new to the House of Commons, but of another nationality, and with ideas and sympathies different to those of the British members, was in itself a sufficiently striking thing which could not but alter the previous balance of parties. But the personal element, however important, was of much less consequence as regards permanent effect upon the country than the new interests which Parliament was called upon to consider, and the new ideas and principles which it was compelled to discuss. Two subjects especially forced themselves upon public attention, one of which appealed to the deepest feelings, whilst the other seriously affected the material welfare of the Irish people. These were the religious and the agrarian questions, which, although seemingly separate, were in reality intimately connected, since the laws relating to the tenure of land,