146 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



ever his conduct may be. Men often do acts, after 

 which, if done in England, they would never again 

 venture to look an honest man in the face. In Ire- 

 land they walk about as confident as ever, as if 

 they had done nothing to be ashamed of. Nobody 

 treats them as worse than others, or seems to think 

 them so. 



4. There is no royal road to better the condition 

 of Ireland or to improve its land. A country in 

 such a backward and undeveloped state is simply in 

 a state of childhood. For this reason the strictest 

 application of sound rules of right and wrong, and of 

 those economical principles of free and open com- 

 petition that have so helped the prosperity of Eng- 

 land, are of supreme importance. 



5. That the law should be always enforced is one 

 of the greatest needs of the country. When there is 

 any difficulty in enforcing it, it is a sure proof that 

 the law needs to be strengthened, so that it may be 

 enforced. No one should be left the least hope that 

 he can evade the law. It is not severity that is 

 wanted — it is the certainty of punishment for wrong- 

 doing. 



I believe that a sure punishment of one month 

 on the treadmill, if it might be inflicted summarily, 

 on the same principles as are held to justify arrest 

 when the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended, would 

 keep the most disturbed district quiet. I acted on 

 this view during the Fenian troubles, only of course 



