Page:Home rule (Beesly).djvu/9

9 who, being English landlords, look on Irish landlords as an outpost of landlordism to be defended as long as possible. Our workmen have heard something of the Irish landlord, and there is no being so hateful to them. But they could hardly be expected to feel much enthusiasm for Home Rule if it really menaced the safety and welfare of their own country. Let us consider this bugbear.

There was a time, and it is not so far distant, when in the race for bigness, any weak country did run a risk of being snapped up, merely to add to the acreage and population of a powerful neighbour. I believe that many people are so unobservant as to imagine that this danger is as great as ever. Certainly, I have often heard the remark that if we dropped Ireland she would be annexed by France or America. One is almost ashamed to undertake a serious refutation of so ludicrous a delusion. Ninety years ago the French government of that day did plan a conquest of Ireland; and many Irishmen at that time would have welcomed it. But even then Bonaparte pooh-poohed the scheme, pointing out to the Directory that Ireland was much more embarrassing to England as she was than if she were a French province. At the present time it may be safely said, that there is not a single Irishman or a single Frenchman who would listen to such a proposal with patience. That many, perhaps most Irishmen, would gladly join the United States, I quite believe. But nothing is more certain than that if Mr. Parnell went down on his knees for it, and Mr. Gladstone joined in his entreaties, the United States would not accept Ireland at any price. It has been a wise rule of their policy from the first, to annex no trans-marine territory, and Ireland is certainly the last country for which they would break it.

I have thought it well to notice this absurd delusion, because I know that it prevails widely among ill-informed people. No statesman would think of countenancing it, except perhaps Lord Randolph Churchill, if he found himself addressing a peculiarly ignorant audience, where there happened to be no reporters. Need I stop to examine the fearful probability that four millions and three-quarters of