Nor are my acknowledgments due only to the living. Gustave de Beaumont's '_Irelande sociale et politique_' was placed in my hands by a friend after the plan of my argument was complete, and the writing of this book was in fact begun. From De Beaumont I learnt more than from any other writer on the subject of Ireland with whose works I am acquainted, and I found to my great satisfaction that his speculations curiously confirm the objections I was prepared to urge against the policy of Home Rule. It is a duty to insist upon the debt I owe to De Beaumont, because at the present moment no greater service can be rendered to Englishmen and to Irishmen alike than to press upon them the study of an author whose writings are far better known on the Continent than in England, and whose thoughts, though they may seem a little out of date, are full not only of profound wisdom but of practical guidance. A.V. DICEY. OCTOBER, 1886. CONTENTS CHAPTER I NATURE OF THE ARGUMENT CHAPTER II. MEANING OF HOME RULE CHAPTER III. STRENGTH OF THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND CHAPTER IV. ENGLISH ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF HOME RULE. Argument I.--From Foreign Experience " II.--From the Will of the Irish People " III.--From the Lessons of Irish History " IV.--From the Virtues of Self-Government " V.--From the Necessity for Coercion Acts " VI.--From the Inconvenience to England of Refusing Home Rule CHAPTER V. THE MAINTENANCE OF THE UNION CHAPTER VI. SEPARATION CHAPTER VII. HOME RULE--ITS FORMS. I.--Home Rule as Federalism II.--Home Rule as Colonial Independence III.--Home Rule as the Revival of Grattan's Constitution IV.--Home Rule under the Gladstonian Constitution CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION APPENDIX CHAPTER I. NATURE OF THE ARGUMENT. [Sidenote: Aim and line of argument] My aim is to criticise from a purely English point of view the policy of Home Rule, or the proposal to create a more or less independent Parliament in Ireland; and as a result of such criticism to establish the truth, and develop the consequences, of this proposition--namely, that any system of Home Rule, whatever be the form it takes, is less beneficial to Great Britain, or (to use popular language) to England, than is the maintenance of the Union, and is at least as much opposed to the vital interests of England as would be the national independence of Ireland.