consult Hansard, notably the debates on Ireland, during the agitated period from 1880 to 1889; of course he should only study the great speeches. The publications on this subject are very many, and some of real importance; as regards the policy and conduct of the Land, and even of the National Leagues, and the frightful outbreak of disorder and crime which was the result, nothing is equal in value to the Report of the Judges of the ‘Special Commission,’ and to the immense body of evidence brought before them; ‘The Verdict,’ by Professor Dicey, sums up well the conclusions at which they arrived. The utterances of the so-called Irish ‘Nationalist’ Press, throughout these years, fully verify the facts disclosed in the Report, and its findings; they have, indeed, been continued in a less ferocious and violent, but in a significant, strain ever since; a collection of them will be found in the volumes published by the Irish Unionist Alliance. On this subject, and also on the state of opinion existing among a large majority, probably, of the Irish people, see ‘The Continuity of the Irish Revolutionary Movement,’ by Professor Brougham Leech; ‘The Truth about the Land League,’ by Mr. Arnold Foster, M.P.; ‘Parnellism and Crime,’ republished from the Times; ‘Incipient Irish Revolution,’ anonymous but able; some valuable articles on Ireland by the late Lord Grey that appeared in the Nineteenth Century; ‘Disturbed Ireland,’ by Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P.; ‘The Plan of Campaign Illustrated;’ and ‘About Ireland,’ by Mrs. E. Lynn Lynton. The recent revolutionary and agrarian movements in Ireland have not found many to vindicate them, or even fully to explain their causes; but reference may be made to ‘The Parnell Movement,’ by T. P. O’Connor, M.P.; to the ‘New Ireland’ of Mr. A. M. Sullivan; to Mr. Barry O’Brien’s ‘Irish Wrongs and English Remedies;’ and to a series of articles called ‘Ungrateful Ireland,’ in the Nineteenth Century, from the pen of Sir G. Duffy. A host of papers in quarterly, monthly, and other reviews and magazines on the political and social condition of Ireland of late years has, also, been published from time to time. Attempts have been made, quite recently, to show that the troubles of Ireland have become things of the past, and that she is a prosperous and happy land; but though real improvement has certainly taken place, these are mere repetitions of the optimistic fancies that have so often proved delusions.

The great question of Home Rule, ‘present’ if for a time postponed, was first put forward formally by the late Isaac Butt. His ‘Irish Federalism’ is a thoughtful and able treatise that ought to be studied. The speeches in Parliament, from 1874 to 1885, on this subject, collected in Hansard, deserve attention; notably the violent attacks on this policy made during many years by Mr. Gladstone. Hansard, too, should be perused, after that statesman became a convert to Home Rule, for the speeches on both sides, on the Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893; some are of marked power and insight, though few rise to the heights of great constitutional principles. Mr. Gladstone’s defence of his sudden change of front will be found in his ‘History of an Idea,’ a tract published soon after his defeat at the polls in 1886; he has endeavoured to vindicate his later Irish policy, in many pamphlets and speeches, in volumes collected by himself. For a masterly examination of his public conduct on matters relating to Ireland, and in some other passages in his career, I would especially direct the reader to the ‘Memoirs of the late Lord Selborne,’ part ii. vol. ii. pp. 339-360; Mr. Lecky’s brilliant sketch in his ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ Cabinet Edition, Introduction, pp. 19-56, is a composition of rare excellence. Nothing is to be compared to Professor Dicey’s ‘England’s Case against Home Rule,’ and his ‘Leap in the Dark,’ for a thorough investigation, from the Unionist point of view, of the natural and the probable consequences of the Gladstonian Irish policy, and for an analysis of the two Home Rule Bills; few political works have attracted equal attention. There have also been many publications, on the side of the Union, of more or less merit; see ‘Home Rule,’ reprinted from the Times, containing several very able letters and papers; ‘The Truth about Home Rule;’ ‘A Sketch of Unionist Policy;’ and a number of articles in the Edinburgh and the Quarterly Review, and in other reviews and magazines. The publications which advocate Home Rule have not been numerous; a reader may consult the ‘Hand Book of Home Rule,’ edited by Mr. Bryce, M.P.; ‘Irish Members and English Gaolers,’ and ‘Combination and Coercion,’ by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre; and some contributions to a few reviews and other serials.

The ‘Present Question’ of the Irish land, and of Irish landed relations, goes back to even remote antiquity, and is connected with the whole course of Irish history. The characteristics and peculiarities of tribal land tenure in Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman Conquest, have been admirably explained in Sir Henry Maine’s ‘Early History of Institutions,’ a very valuable work. I may refer to an article on this book, from my pen, in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1875. See, also, the ‘Senchus Mor,’ and the ‘Book of Aicile,’ fragments of the Brehon Laws, well annotated by the late Professor Richey. The state of the Irish land, from the Anglo-Norman Conquest to the beginning of the Tudor period, has been fully illustrated in the ‘Statute of Kilkenny,’ edited by James Hardiman, whose learned commentary is useful and important; in the ‘Discovery’ of Sir John Davies; in Spenser’s ‘View of the State of Ireland;’ in the ‘O’Conors of Connaught,’ by the O’Conor Don; in Hallam’s ‘Constitutional History,’ vol. iii. chapter on Ireland; and in Professor Richey’s ‘Lectures.’ I have glanced at the state of Irish land tenure during the tribal and the feudal ages, in the introductory chapters to my ‘Ireland, 1494-1868,’ in the ‘Cambridge Historical Series.’ The most complete account, perhaps, of the confiscations of the Irish land, from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of Charles I., will be found in the ‘Carew Papers,’ edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen; valuable information abounds in the ‘State Papers relating to the reign of Henry VIII.,’ edited by Hans Claude Hamilton; in ‘The Life of Sir John Perrott and his Letters;’ in the ‘Earls of Kildare,’ edited by the Marquis of Kildare; in the ‘State Papers,’ edited by Hamilton, ante, ‘relating to the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth;’ in the ‘Annals of the Four Masters;’ and see Davies and Spenser, ante. Several modern writers have treated this subject in their narratives of Irish history; Froude’s ‘History of England,’ vol. ii. ch. viii.; vol. iv. ch. xix.; vol. v. ch. xxviii.; vol. viii. chs. vii.-xi.; vol. x. ch. xxiv.; vol. xi. ch. xxvii., may be consulted; but a reader should be put on his guard against the brilliant but partisan historian. There is a valuable chapter also, in a very different work, Mr. Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. ch. vi. pp. 92 seqq.; and a great deal may be learned from the ‘O’Conors of Connaught,’ and Richey’s ‘Lectures,’ ante; and especially from an ‘Historical Account of the Plantation of Ulster,’ by the Rev. George Hill, and from Sigerson’s ‘History of Irish Land Tenure.’ In the momentous period of confiscation, from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to that of William III., a reader should study ‘Strafford’s Letters;’ Carte’s ‘Life of Ormond;’ Lord Clanricarde’s