Of the cordial relations between Sweden and Norway we hear nothing; the goodwill generated by a system of Home Rule is bringing these countries to the brink of civil war.[116] There are two analogous cases or precedents on which serious reasoners rely in support of a policy of Home Rule for Ireland.

The success of federal government in other countries, and especially in the United States, and the success of colonial independence throughout the British Empire, are adduced as presumptions that Home Rule would knit together Great Britain and Ireland, or, as the cant of the day goes, transform a paper union into a union of hearts.

If New York be loyal to the United States, if New Zealand be loyal to the British Crown, why should not Ireland, when endowed with local independence resembling the independence of an American State or of a self-governing British colony, be a loyal member of the United Kingdom ?[117] This is the suggested argument--let us consider its validity.
As to federalism .-- All the conditions which make a federal constitution work successfully in the United States, in Switzerland, and possibly in Germany, are wanting in England and Ireland.

No man till the last five or six years has even suggested that Englishmen or Scotsmen desire a federal government for its own sake.

Whether Mr.Gladstone himself has any wish to federalise the whole United Kingdom is at least open to doubt.