I cannot conceive of a prosperous Ireland in which the influence of these leaders is restricted within its present bounds.

It has been so restricted because the Irish Unionist party has failed to produce a policy which could attract, at any rate, moderate men from the other side, and we have, therefore, to consider why we have so failed.

Until this is done, we shall continue to share the blame for the miserable state of our political life which, at the end of the nineteenth century, appeared to have made but little advance from the time when Bishop Berkeley asked 'Whether our parties are not a burlesque upon politics.' The Irish Unionist party is supposed to unite all who, like the author, are opposed to the plunge into what is called Home Rule.

But its propagandist activities in Ireland are confined to preaching the doctrine of the _status quo_, and preaching it only to its own side.
From the beginning the party has been intimately connected with the landlord class; yet even upon the land question it has thrown but few gleams of the constructive thought which that question so urgently demanded, and which it might have been expected to apply to it.

Now and again an individual tries to broaden the basis of Irish Unionism and to bring himself into touch with the life of the people.