Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/356

After Limerick European nation. When once we allow, and surely we are bound to do so, that the present condition of a nation is the result of its past history, it cannot be a matter of surprise that modern England and modern Ireland are so different in all that makes for material comfort and progress. The present condition of England is the result of centuries of steady progress. Her people have always had leaders to guide them, her laws have generally been in accordance with the moral feeling of the community, in no direction has her material development been checked. But Ireland at the present day is the result of centuries of oppression and neglect. She has been robbed of her natural leaders, for more than a century the law of the land was in direct opposition to the religion of the people, the development of the country has been checked on all sides. But this is forgotten by those persons who insist that the troubles of Ireland are due to the temperament and religion of her people, and who do not realise that the character of a people must form itself according to the circumstances that surround them. 344