THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF 1903. 163 



the concession of a kind of self-government for 

 Ireland. He will struggle for a while against 

 the designation ' Home Rule,' because not so 

 long ago he was declaring that he would die in 

 the last ditch for the union of the three kingdoms ; 

 but he will soon be reconciled to it. It will not 

 be very long till all the former landlords whose 

 chief interests lie in Ireland have become en- 

 thusiastic nationalists.^ It is indeed possible that 

 the agrarian peace now beginning — a peace 

 which, however, will still for a time be broken 

 by occasional combats— may be rendered fruit- 

 less by sectarian dissensions. In any case it 

 may still be said that the most serious obstacle 

 to the granting of Home Rule to Ireland has 

 been removed. 



When the Irish people, who have during the 

 past thirty years seen so many of their wishes 

 fulfilled, have seen also the realization of this 

 last dream, then they will gradually come to 



^ It is very significant that Lord Dunraven, the strongest 

 personality among the participants in the Land Conference, 

 should last autumn have developed a scheme of Devolution. 

 It is also not without interest that he has at the same time 

 taken a strong interest in the agitation for Fiscal Reform insti 

 tuted by Chamberlain. Irish politicians are always instinc- 

 tively Protectionists. If at the present time certain protective 

 proposals came to the benefit of the peasantry, and they let 

 themselves be won over by Chamberlainism, that would mean 

 the winning of 80 votes for Protection. However, as long 

 as the Conservatives refuse Home Rule to Ireland, and the 

 Liberals are for granting it, Irish sentiment will incline to the 

 Liberal and Free-Trade side. 



