And now what of the future, for Ireland is still
with us ? Tho answer is plain. The fact that emerges is the necessity for main- taining the Act of Union. That with all its faults is the system which divides us least, aral which secures the maximum of good government for Ireland. Till the Nationalists can accept Mr. Lloyd George's offer, let us maintain the Union in the spirit and the letter, still coupling with it a wise policy of developing the internal resources of Ireland. What produced the armed revolution in Ireland was not the maintenance of the Act of Union, but the half-saiccessful attempt to overthrow it by legislation, and the miserable, shameful, and idiotic plan of destroying it in fact ii not in law by a system of administration which for want of a better name we must call " Birrellism "—the system which prevailed for the five years previous to the Siam Fent rising, and ended in a deluge of blood.
