Church--that this embittered feeling at present exists; nor that that system of exclusion, which either in form or spirit has so long existed, is the consequence of Protestantism._” It was not the Protestantism, not the connection, but the kind of Protestantism, the sort of connection, the exclusive and selfish spirit, that filled Ireland with ferment. Hitherto Government had offered “a little thing in a great way.”[138] “Justice to Ireland” had been long cried on the housetops. What was the meaning of that cry? It only signified a forced _identity_ of English institutions with Irish. Identity, however, was just what Ireland resented with disgust. What were her stumbling-blocks and stones of offence? What was “the Irish question”? “One says it is a physical question, another a spiritual. Now it is the absence of the aristocracy, now the absence of railroads. It is the Pope one day, potatoes the next. Let us consider Ireland as we should any other country similarly situated.... Then we shall see a teeming population, which, with reference to the cultivated soil, is denser to the square mile than that of China; created solely by agriculture, with none of those sources of wealth which are developed with civilisation, and sustained, consequently, on the lowest conceivable diet; so that, in case of failure, they have no other means of subsistence upon which they can fall back. That dense population in extreme distress inhabit an island where there is an Established Church which is not their Church, and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom live in distant capitals. Thus you have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church; _and, in addition, the weakest executive in the world_. That is the Irish question. What were the remedies? “To begin with, and before anything else, you must have a representative, a responsive, a _strong_ Executive. Ireland is an exceptional piece of the United Kingdom, and she alone demands what is foreign to the English spirit--_centralisation_ of government. Next, the administration must be _impartial_. There must be no exclusion and no favouritism. You must also have _ecclesiastical equality_. The Church in Ireland must change the tone of its temper. And you must ‘_reconstruct_ the social system’ of Ireland. ‘All great things are difficult;’ but it is more difficult to reconstruct a society than a party. Agitation only unsettles: it does not settle; and it means the incompetence of a Government. You must ‘create public opinion instead of following it; lead the public instead of always lagging after and watching others.’