As proof that the Irish Question is, at the present
time at least, not a landlords' question, Mr. Balfour pointed to the fact that not only all the non-Romanist Episcopalians, but all the Dissenters without exception, are on the side which is called by the Parnellites the landlords' side. Mr. Balfour further referred to the many prophecies that Home-rule must come sooner or later, and said that even if he could be assured by a prophet of whose genuine power of prevision he could have some guarantee, that Home-rule would be carried within five years' time, it would not alter by one iota his own view of his own duty. "Every day and every hour in which we stretch the strong arm of the law to protect the weak in Ireland, is a day and hour gained. And if I were certain that everything we had done to build up an Empire were destined to crumble into dust, that our efforts were to be vain, and that it was to be our hard fate to look back upon years spent in attempting to preserve a country that was determined to be lost, still I should not regret for one moment the efforts that we had made in the cause of law and order in Ireland." "These efforts are good and justifiable as means to an end, but they are equally good and justifiable in themselves." That has the ring of true metal in it, the ring which we do not often now find in our states- men's words. It is by language of this kind that Mr. Balfour has gained the confidence which is now becoming so general in his own strength and clearness of purpose.
Previous page
