To those of us who are interested in the future of our country there is at this very moment presented a really serious problem.  The political struggle of the last century has been so intense that many of our people have come to have none but a political solution in view.  For them the whole question is one of politics, and they will continue to believe that Ireland will have found salvation the moment we get Home Rule or something like it.  Such an attitude seems natural enough when we remember what our people have suffered in the past.  Nevertheless, on a little reflection, this error—­for error it is, and an enormous one, too—­will be quickly dissipated.  In the first place, the political struggle of today is only the continuation of a conflict which has lasted seven hundred years, and in point of fact we have a right to be proud that after so many trials there still remains to us anything of our national inheritance.  We find ourselves indeed on the battlefield somewhat seriously bruised, but we can console ourselves with the thought that our opponent is in equally doleful case, that he is beginning to suffer from a fatal weariness, and that he is anxious to make peace with us.

In order to place the present political situation in its true light and to take into account its comparatively limited importance, we must not lose sight of the fundamental fact that what Home Rule connotes is rather a tender of peace on the part of Ireland than a gift which England presents us of her own free will.  In fact, our neighbor across the Channel has as much interest as ourselves, and perhaps even more, in bringing the struggle to an end.  Through us, England has already lost much prestige, and that famous British Constitution, which in times past everyone admired while trying in vain to imitate it, has lost caste considerably.  I am not now speaking of the danger which an Ireland discontented, and even hostile, and having nothing to lose, would constitute for England in case of war.  It is especially from our neighbor’s point of view that we can cry up Home Rule or any other solution that will bring peace.  But let us leave to Great Britain the task of getting out of trouble as best she may.  On our side, what shall we say of it?

In our conflict with the English we are not wearied; rather are we hardened for the fray.  We have acquired the habit of fighting, and many of us can now scarcely regulate our conduct in a manner suitable to a state of peace with England.  Nevertheless, as I have already said, we have not emerged unscathed from this war of the centuries.  National sentiment remains with us, no doubt, and our traditions are not wholly lost, especially among the country people of the West.  But our commerce is almost ruined and the national language is no longer spoken throughout the greater part of the country.  It is true that a continuation of the hitherto existing state of war cannot do us much more harm; that for purposes of