was taken away by the defection of Ulster; the majority in that province having come to see that their best course would be to make terms with the future Central Government of Ireland, the more especially as resistance, unsupported by England, would be worse than useless. The work of the invasion was now complete; on the last day of the month the American-Irish Declaration of Severance was despatched for the digestion of the British Cabinet, together with the other terms of peace, which included a heavy war indemnity, to be divided equally among the Allies.
Lord Humnoddie resigned, with all his colleagues, but no one could be found to form a Cabinet at this juncture; so the affairs of the country were managed for the moment by revolutionary mass meetings, which hurriedly delegated their authority to a Committee of Public Safety. First and foremost, peace was concluded, the costs were paid, and Ireland abandoned. It was a great blow to the pride of the dominant party in England; their only consolation was that matters might have been very much worse. After all, the battle had taken place in Ireland, not England; Great Britain was still intact, and perhaps her position among nations might not permanently suffer. France herself had borne a heavier disaster only a generation ago, and, instead of being crushed, had risen from it into a more solid national life.
Still it was not pleasant to reflect that what should have been conceded with a good grace, binding the two islands together in a more genuine union than had ever existed between them before, was now taken away by force; that through clinging stolidly to an insensate prejudice, half a kingdom had gone to the foreigner; for the incorporation of Ireland as one of the United States was hardly less than that, although, it is true, the foreigner in this case was one of kindred race, language, and political genius.
