118 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



country has been made into a political hotbed. 

 We live under that most liberal constitutional prin- 

 ciple that one man is as good as another, if not much 

 better; though those who claim such rights have not 

 one quality to fit them for properly using them, and 

 are wholly the tools of others. How can any one 

 wonder that such results as we see are daily produced? 

 Home Kule M.P.'s have done great good in proving 

 to men elsewhere the true nature of Irish doings. 

 They are the crime de la cr&me of the large part of 

 the people they represent. The changed tone of 

 opinion in England is their work ; and they should 

 be thanked for it. 



I have lived for a great many years in the country, 

 and every year that passes I find more kindliness and 

 good-will, and like those better with whom I am 

 brought in contact. No one can be more alive to the 

 good qualities of the people than I am. To me, too, 

 life in Ireland has been very gainful, as it is to all 

 honest men who take pains and have any sense. 

 Moreover, I see that in many things the country has 

 much advanced since I first knew it, and I thoroughly 

 recognise what is so often overlooked, that improve- 

 ment in the habits of a people is the work of gener- 

 ations rather than of years. But I am sure that the 

 sentimental view of Irish questions which was acted 

 on of late, and accepted as right and true, is of the 

 very opposite character, and actually hinders im- 

 provement. Truth and facts are before all things in 



