two churches. He then laid down as a principle for the present time, that we ought not to imitate in Ireland the institutions of England; but instead of mimetic corporations and jobbing grand juries, with imitative benches of English magistrates, we ought to have in Ireland a strong executive and an impartial administration. After speaking of the dense and distressed population, he thus concluded:—
That dense population in extreme distress inhabited an island where there was an Established Church which was not their Church, and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom lived in distant capitals. Thus they had a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and, in addition, the weakest executive in the world. That was the Irish question. Well, then, what would honourable gentlemen say if they were reading of a country in that position? They would say, at once, the remedy is revolution. But the Irish could not have a revolution; and why? Because Ireland was connected with another and a more powerful country. Then what was the consequence? The connection with England thus became the cause of the present state of Ireland. If the connection with England prevented a revolution, and a revolution were the only remedy, England logically was in the odious position of being the cause of all the misery in Ireland. What, then, was the duty of an English minister? To effect by his policy all those changes which a revolution would do by force. That was the Irish question in its integrity. … The moment they had a strong executive, a just administration, and ecclesiastical equality, they would have order in Ireland, and the improvement of the physical condition of the people would follow.[1]
Of these three requisites, the two first—a strong
- ↑ Hansard, vol. lxxii. p. 1016.
