The justice dealt out by the superior courts in Ireland is as good as it is anywhere.  A judge in the last resort has the whole force of the State behind him, and no one dreams of resistance.  With an Irish Parliament and an Irish Executive this would hardly be the case.  The judges would still be lawyers, but their power would be greatly impaired.  In Ireland popular feeling is always against creditors, and it would be very hard indeed either to execute a writ of ejectment or a seizure of goods.  If the sanction of the law is weakened, public respect for it is lessened, and the result will be a general relaxation of the bonds which draw society together.  There is nothing in the antecedents of the Home Rule Party to make one suppose that it contains the materials of a good and impartial government.

Home Rule politicians are talkative and pertinacious.  As members of Parliament they are of course listened to, while Unionists outside Ulster make little noise; it is, therefore, constantly said that they acquiesce in the inevitable change.  Unrepresented men cannot easily make themselves heard, but they have done what they could.  An enormous meeting has been held in Dublin, and the building, which contains some 7000, was filled in a quarter of an hour.  There has since been a large gathering of young men who wish to remain full citizens of the Empire in which they were born, and others are to follow.  In rural districts it is almost impossible to collect people in winter.  Days are short and distances are long.  Unionist farmers cannot forget the outrages that prevailed some years ago, and are not yet unknown.  In the native land of boycotting and cattle-driving it is not surprising that they do not wish to be conspicuous.  The difficulty extends to the towns, in many of which it would be almost impossible to hire a room for Unionist purposes.  Hotel keepers object to risking their business and their windows, for a mob is easily excited to riot on patriotic grounds.  Shopkeepers also have to be cautious in a country which has been wittily described as a land of liberty where no one can do as he likes, but where every one must do exactly what everybody else likes.  In the summer people can meet in the open air, and there will, no doubt, be abundant protests from Southern Unionists.  There will then be something definite to talk about.

It is often said that the County Councils have done well, and that therefore there is no danger in an Irish Parliament, but the two things are different in kind.  County or District Councils, or Boards of Guardians, are constituted by Acts of the Imperial Parliament to administer Acts of the same, and are subject to constant supervision by the Local Government Board, and to the peremptory action of the King’s Bench.  A Parliament is by nature supreme within its sphere of action, and its constant effort would be to enlarge that field.  The men who aim at independence would have the easy part to play, for