They will rather believe that all these material improvements in the
condition of Ireland only make the need for Home Rule stronger and more
urgent. They will realise that Ireland requires not a material, but a
moral cure to give her the full value of the new reforms. Her need is
to be removed once and for all from the class of dependent communities.
She wants the great tonic cure of self-reliance and
self-responsibility.
For it is as true to-day as it was when Mr. Gladstone spoke these wise
and searching words in April, 1886[36]:--
"The fault of the administration of Ireland is simply this:
that its spring and source of action, and what is called its
motor muscle, is English and not Irish. Without providing a
domestic Legislature for Ireland, without having an Irish
Parliament, I want to know how you will bring about this
wonderful, superhuman, and, I believe, in this condition,
impossible result, that your administrative system shall be
Irish and not English?"
The greatest need is still this--to make the "motor-muscle" Irish.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[28] The Report of the Congested Districts Commission was issued in
1908.
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