But there are three other common explanations of the Irish difficulty, any one of which taken by itself only leads away from the truth.

I refer, I need hardly say, to the familiar assertions that the origin of the evil is political, that it is religious, or that it is neither one nor the other, but economic.

In Irish history, no doubt, we may find, under any of these heads, cause enough for much of our present wrong-goings.

But I am profoundly convinced that each of the simple explanations to which I have just alluded--the racial, the political, the religious, the economic--is based upon reasoning from imperfect knowledge of the facts of Irish life.

The cause and cure of Irish ills are not chiefly political, broaden or narrow our conception of politics as we will; they are not chiefly religious, whatever be the effect of Roman Catholic influence upon the practical side of the people's life; they are not chiefly economic, be the actual poverty of the people and the potential wealth of the country what they may.