Page:Home rule through federal devolution.djvu/17



HE momentous five years which have elapsed since the passing of The Government of Ireland Act, 1914, during which that Act has been in suspension, have brought many significant changes in the political and social aspect and conditions of the world. Ideals and opinions which, five years ago, seemed well-founded and unimpeachable, have had to be re-examined; and many schemes, which then appeared feasible and full of promise, have been reconstructed or abandoned as impracticable.

In Ireland, we have had the rise of the Sinn Fein conspiracy, and the destructive rebellion of Easter, 1916; the break-up of the Nationalist Party, and the substitution, in lieu of its parliamentary action, of the attempt to set up by revolution an independent Irish Republic.

Towards the end of 1917 came the well-intentioned but futile Convention, appointed in the vain hope of bringing all parties to a friendly agreement; balanced on the other hand, later on, by the ill-advised project of conscription, the effect of which was to weld together the discordant factions, and to throw the whole voting power of the constituencies, throughout agricultural Ireland, into the Sinn Fein scale; of which we have seen the results in the late election.

Last of all, we have had the recent Irish tour of the American envoys, undertaken, as they alleged, with the approval of the Prime Minister, still further to 11