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Page 2
Will Great Britain decide wisely in the choice to which she is now put?
Naturally, I do not speak of the Parliamentary future of the Home Rule
Bill: that is safe. I have in mind rather that profound moral
settlement, that generous reconciliation which we have seen in South
Africa, and desire to see in Ireland. What of it? Did reason and the
candid vision of things, as they are, control public affairs, there
could be little doubt as to the issue in this choice between friendship
and hatred, between the formula of freedom and that of domination. But,
unhappily, we have no assurance that Philip sober rather than Philip
drunk will sign the warrant. There exists in England, in respect of all
things Irish, a monstrous residuum of prejudice. It lies ambushed in the
blood even when it has been dismissed from the mind, and constitutes the
real peril of the situation. No effort will be spared to reawaken it.
The motto of militant Unionism has always been: When in doubt throw mud.
Such a programme naturally begets a predilection for ditches, and when
certain orators speak of the "last ditch" they must be taken to mean
that which has most mud in it. The old methods are already once more in
operation. The wicked lying of previous campaigns no doubt cannot be
repeated: bigotry will make no further experiments in Pigottry. But a
resolute attempt, lavishly financed and directed by masters of the art
of defamation, will be made to blacken Ireland. Every newspaper in every
remotest country-town in England will be deluged with syndicated venom.
The shop-keeper will wrap up his parcels in Orange posters, and the
working-man will, I hope, light his pipe for years to come with
pamphlets of the same clamant colour. Irishmen, or at all events persons
born in Ireland, will be found to testify that they belong to a
barbarous people which has never ceased from barbarism, and that they
are not fit to govern themselves. Politicians who were never known to
risk a five-pound note in helping to develop Ireland will toss down
their fifties to help to defame her. Such is the outlook. Against this
campaign of malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness it is the duty of
every good citizen to say his word, and in the following pages I say
mine. This little book is not a compendium of facts, and so does not
trench on the province of Mr Stephen Gwynn M.P.'s admirable "Case for
Home Rule." It does not discuss the details, financial or otherwise, of
a statesmanlike settlement. Such suggestions as I had to make I have
already made in "Home Rule Finance," and the reader will find much
ampler treatment of the whole subject in "The Framework of Home Rule,"
by Mr Erskine Childers, and "Home Rule Problems," edited by Mr Basil
Williams. In general, my aim has been to aid in humanising the Irish
Question. The interpretation of various aspects of it, here offered, is
intended to be not exhaustive but provocative, a mere set of shorthand
rubrics any one of which might have been expanded into a chapter.
Addressing the English reader with complete candour, I have attempted to
recommend to him that method of approach, that mental attitude which
alone can divest him of his preconceptions, and put him in rapport with
the true spirit of the Ireland of actuality. To that end the various
lines of discussion converge:--
Chapter I is an outline of the pathology of the English mind in Ireland.
Chapters II and III present the history of Ireland as the epic, not of a
futile and defeated, but of an indomitable and victorious people.
Chapter IV exhibits the Home Rule idea as a fundamental law of nature,
human nature, and government.
Chapters V and VI contain a very brief account of the more obvious
economic crimes and blunders of Unionism.
Chapter VII discusses the queer ideas of "Ulster," and the queer
reasons for the survival of these ideas.
Chapter VIII demonstrates that, as a mere matter of political technique,
Home Rule must be conceded if any real government is ever to exist
again, whether in Great Britain, in Ireland, or in the Empire.
Chapter IX dips into the future, and indicates that a Home Rule Ireland
will have so much interesting work to do as to have no time for civil
war or religious oppression.
Chapter X shows that everybody who values "loyalty" must of necessity be
a Home Ruler.
The only moral commended to the reader is that expressed by Browning in
a firm and inevitable line, which has been disastrously forgotten in so
many passages of English history:--
"It's fitter being sane than mad."
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