"
O'CONNELL.
CHAPTER IX.
HOME RULE IN THE WORLD
"Ah!" but I shall be told by Unionist critics who have followed me so
far, "but the tendency of the world at present is all towards great
empires and away from little states. You are reversing the process."
This will probably be one of the most frequent arguments that we shall
hear during the present discussions. We shall, perhaps, have thrown at
our heads cases like the absorption of Persia by Russia, of Tripoli by
Italy, of Morocco by France, and of the Congo by Germany.
If we are to argue the matter on those lines it will be fair to point
out, on the other side, that during the last decade Norway has
separated from Sweden, new provincial and state governments have been
created in Canada and the United States, new self-governing powers have
been given to Cuba and the Philippines by the Americans in faithful and
loyal adherence to their word at the time of the Spanish-American war,
and, even more recently, new powers have been given to Alsace and
Lorraine by the German Empire.
So the argument might go on, to and fro, each party pelting one another
with cases from other parts of the world.
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