CHAPTER III. 



A NEW DEPARTURE. 



Since 1885-6, the English Liberal Party has 

 been in alliance with the Irish on the policy of 

 Home Rule, i.e., of the granting of a system of 

 parliamentary self-government. The Conserva- 

 tives, on the other hand, held fast to the Union 

 with England, and had as a Unionist Party 

 gained their greatest triumphs. They refused 

 the political demands of the Irish Nationalists ; 

 but recognizing justly that a purely negative 

 policy is in the long run no policy, they had 

 sought with a good will to comply with Ireland's 

 desires in the economic sphere. Moreover, it is 

 always well to be on good terms with a party 

 eighty strong ; no one can tell how the next 

 elections may fall out. 



This polic}^ was called " Killing Home Rule 

 with Kindness." ^ The principal champion of it 

 was Air. Gerald Balfour, whose brother, Arthur 

 Balfour, had already inaugurated it. With the 



^ [Not of course by its adherents, who always described it as 

 a poHcy of sympathy and justice towards Ireland, called for by 

 the social and historical circumstances to which they attributed 

 the Home Rule demand. — TrausL'l 



