xi POLITICAL LIFE 269 



were determined that they would still keep them in 

 English leading-strings. I stated that when on a 

 visit to Dublin some time ago, a Protestant of 

 high standing, Dr. Robert Maguire, who had lived 

 in Dublin all his life, and was intimately acquainted 

 with every condition of society from the Lord 

 Lieutenant downwards, told me that he was a Home 

 Ruler, though not a Parnellite, because he was con- 

 vinced that to make Ireland a nation responsibility 

 must be thrown upon the people, and he added that 

 England had demoralised the Irish. The Irish bar 

 was a demoralised bar, and what the Irish had to 

 learn was to keep their hands out of English pockets. 



I also quoted some words of John Bright's speech 

 made in Dublin in 1886: "You will recollect that 

 when the ancient Hebrew prophet prayed in his 

 captivity, he prayed with his window open towards 

 Jerusalem. You know that the followers of 

 Mahommed when they pray turn their faces towards 

 Mecca. When the Irish peasant asks for food and 

 freedom and blessing, his eye follows the setting sun, 

 the aspirations of his heart reach beyond the wide 

 Atlantic, and in spirit he grasps hands with the great 

 Republic of the West ! " I then added that the love 

 of their country on the part of the Irish all the world 

 over had been termed sentimentality. Sentiment is 

 one of the most powerful incentives to human action, 

 and to it is due some of the greatest benefits that the 

 human race has received. 



When, as often, I felt annoyed with the rough 

 and tumble life of politics as compared with the 

 more peaceful atmosphere of one's scientific work, I 

 remembered the Grand Old Man's words, written 

 some time before and probably for another purpose : 

 " The free expression of opinion, as our experience 



