Mr. Morley's speech in accepting the freedom of the City
of Dublin, dwelt a good deal on the Lord Mayor's remark that the mass of Irishmen are not Separatists; but no one supposes that they are, so long as they perceive clearly that they can get more by holding on to the Union than they can get by breaking off from it. What Englishmen believe is that Irish demands on English concessions rise a great deal more rapidly than it is at all possible for English concessions to keep up with them, unless we offer to put England at once and absolutely under Ireland's heel; and further, that the Parnellites will no sooner realise that they can get no more, than they will be for trying a separate nationality,—after all, a far more reasonable demand than any half-and-half measure. Mr. Morley virtually admitted that the great mass of Irish wealth and culture was against him, but insisted that numbers are now the only constitutional measure of national feeling. He also quoted the Quarterly Review of 1828, ridiculing it for then regarding both Catholic Emancipa- tion and Reform as equally impossible. No doubt the Quarterly was not inspired by any great sagacity on that occasion ; but Catholic Emancipation with justice to Ireland within the Legis- lative Union, is one thing, and a concession to Ireland of the means of thwarting the United Kingdom in every possible way, and that, too, without taking any of the military and naval risks of that course, is quite another.
