one further confirmation of the view, here advanced, to omit which would be to ignore the most significant fact of our time.  Certain departments such as the Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture, recent creations, have been freshened by the introduction of a representative, non-official element.  Others such as the Estates Commission have been under the control of officials of a new type, able men who do not conceal the fact that they believe in Ireland.  All of these new Boards have struck root in the national life to a depth never reached by any of their predecessors.  The lesson of this change is the lesson of freedom.  In the precise degree in which government trusts the people will the people trust government.  It remains to complete the process by a scheme of autonomy that shall make every administrator a trustee and executant of the will of the nation.

There are other organs of “government” in Ireland of which the reader may reasonably expect to hear something.  He will permit me to discharge my obligations by copying out certain paragraphs from an old note-book: 

“Judges.—­It is a mistake to suppose that none of the Irish Judges know any law.  Our judiciary includes many masterly lawyers, and many adroit men of the world.  But all of them are political appointments.  Hence in ordinary cases a man will get clean justice.  But the moment politics flutter on the breeze, the masked battery on the Bench is uncurtained to bellow forth anti-Nationalist shrapnel.  Irish Judges, in fact, are very like the horse in the schoolboy’s essay:  ’The horse is a noble and useful quadruped, but, when irritated, he ceases to do so.”

     “Police.—­The Royal Irish Constabulary was formerly an Army of
     occupation.  Now, owing to the all but complete disappearance of
     crime, it is an Army of no occupation.”

     “Dublin Castle in general.—­Must be seen to be disbelieved.”

Since there does not exist a British Empire, it is necessary to invent one.  Since there does not exist an Irish government, in any modern and intelligible sense of the word, it is necessary to invent one.  The common creative mould out of which both must be struck is the principle of Home Rule.

CHAPTER IX

AFTER HOME RULE

The advocates of Home Rule are invited to many ordeals by way of verifying their good faith; perhaps the heaviest ordeal is that of prophecy.  Very well, people say, what are you going to do with Home Rule when you get it?  What will Irish politics be like in, say, 1920?  If we show embarrassment or offer conflicting answers, the querist is persuaded that we are, as indeed he thought, vapouring sentimentalists, not at all accustomed to live in a world of clear ideas and unyielding facts.  The demand, like many others made upon us, is unreal and unreasonable.  What