“It has gratified me to find abundant proof that the country was, and is, fully alive to the vital importance of devolution.... The task of the House of Commons in our time has habitually exceeded what had ever been imposed upon a legislative body in the whole history of the world.... I desire to point out the three cardinal points of the question. First, the congestion of business, now notorious and inveterate, degrades the House of Commons by placing it at the mercy of those among its members who seek for notoriety by obstructing business, instead of pursuing the more honourable road to reputation by useful service, or of those who, with more semblance of warrant, seek to cripple the action of the House of Commons in order to force the acceptance of their own political projects. Secondly, it disappoints, irritates, and injures the country by the suspension of useful legislation. And lastly, and perhaps worst of all, it defeats the fundamental rule of our Parliamentary system—that the majority shall prevail.... This country will not, in the full sense, be a self-governing country until the machinery of the House of Commons is amended, and its procedure reformed.” It is possible that Mr. Gladstone had in his mind reform of procedure of the nature of devolution to bodies within the House of Commons such as Grand Committees; but in view of his former utterances it is probable that he foresaw the necessity for devolution on a larger scale. Mr. Chamberlain continued, even during the Home Rule controversy, faithful in his advocacy of devolution. In a manifesto to his supporters, issued on July 11th, 1886, he appealed to the moderate opinion in Great Britain for a “delegation not a surrender of power,” on the part of the Imperial Parliament. He outlined his political aims in the following succinct statement: The objects to be kept in view are: (1) To relieve the Imperial Parliament by devolution of Irish local business, and to set it free for other and more important work. (2) To secure the free representation of Irish opinion in all matters of purely Irish concern. (3) To offer to Irishmen a fair field for legitimate local ambition and patriotism, and to bring back the attention of the Irish people, now diverted to a barren conflict in the Imperial Parliament, to the practical consideration of their own wants and necessities. And, lastly, by removing all unnecessary interference with Irish Government on the part of Great Britain, to diminish the causes of irritation and the opportunity of collision. Mr. Chamberlain was acutely aware of the intimate connection between political and agrarian reform, and outlined a general constructive policy which was adopted up to a point later on by the Unionist party under the inspiration of Mr. George Wyndham: