tive claims of the two countries, you will find that you have
added, I am afraid, very seriously to the Irish discontent. You
will find that the objections which they now have to the
rule of England in Ireland will be intensified if they have a
smaller representation in the HIouse of Commons; and yet I do
not see how, in any redistribution of seats, it can be avoided.
Moreover, it must be admitted that both England and Scot-
land are impatient. They are impatient under the difficulties
that have arisen under the Irish question to a certain extent;
there is a feeling in the country that things cannot long
go on as they have been doing. And that compels me to say
something in regard to Ireland itself. Now, in speaking of
Ireland-and it is a subject in which one has to be very
careful in saying anything about just now-I certainly should
desire to be clearly understood that the maintenance of law
and order is the one first principle that must be upheld. It
is clear that the severest measures of coercion have been abso-
lutely necessary. It is to be hoped that they will not long
be necessary; but no one can look at the position of the sister
island without seeing that the security of life and property must
at all hazards be maintained, no matter how unpalatable it may
be. At the same time, measures of coercion can only be tem-
porary. It is impossible to keep such a country as Ireland
constantly under coercion. It is repugnant to the feelings
both of Scotchmen and Englishmen that any portion of their
fellow-countrymen should be kept under by main force; and I
must say that I consider it really a disgrace to the country that
such a state of things should be necessary. But the difficulty
is-and it is one that I certainly speak abotlt with great
hesitation and diffidence-we have to look at the causes of dis-
content in Ireland. I think they are twofold. There is the real
practical distress which exists in Ireland, and there is also the
sentimental grievance, which I apprehend is the more serious of
the two. The disaffection which exists in Ireland is not so much
that England has misgoverned Ireland, but that England governs
Ireland at all. They object to the government. They have