Lord Lansdowne then dealt with the argument that if Home
Rule was not given to Ireland there would be a repetition of the Ulster difficulty in the south and west of Ireland:-
" I believe this argument to be an absolutely fallacious one. The rest of Ireland has prospered in recent years as no other part of the United Kingdom has prospered, and as few countries in the civilized world have. All this has happened under the system which you are going to break up and get rid of altogether. You are going to substitute a system which has been untried, which is on the face of it less advantageous to the people of Ireland, which is adversely criticised by many of the ablest members of the Nationalist Party, and which is accepted by the rest as a payment on account, with their tongue in their cheek. The difference between your policy and ours is that we desire to preserve a proved success ; you desire to impose a system which we believe is pre- destined to failure."
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