Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/37

Rh people to join him in an alteration of the House of Lords. This fails; and after abusing the Radicals of England, he falls back upon a total abolition of the tithe and the establishment of the voluntary principle. Now, Her Majesty's Government are opposed to all these "justice" nostrums of the learned member, with the exception of the Bill before the House; and that Bill, if passed into law, will not satisfy him. It is, as he terms it, merely an instalment and a fulcrum on which he is to erect his lever to extort the remainder of his demands. Now, looking to these demands, which are supported by gentlemen opposite in terms of equal justice to Ireland, let me ask any calm and moderate statesman whether the Irish people are really insulted because there is a refusal to pass laws of the same nature and principle as those passed for England. The real principle, for all practical purposes, appears to be to consider the social, political and religious state of the country, and to legislate in such a manner as to afford equal protection to every profession and party, and to give equal enjoyment of all rights and privileges to every subject.'

Many fundamental changes have since taken place in Ireland. The Church has been disestablished and disendowed. The tenure of land has been radically altered. The franchise has been fixed on a democratic basis. And yet the cry is still heard for further and more sweeping reforms; the struggle is as keen as ever.

As Secretary at War, Sir Henry Hardinge was