But 'the circumstances,' to adopt the words of Burke, 'are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind;'[25] what were the circumstances in the present instance? England and Catholic Ireland had been long opposed; the Land and the National Leagues formed a conspiracy against our rule in Ireland; England had interests in Ireland of the first importance; she had a large community of her own blood and faith in Ireland, attached to the Union and the old mother country. Ireland had been distracted for ages by feuds of race and religion; Protestant and Catholic Ireland stood apart from each other; the Irish Parliament, created by the Bill, would certainly be an instrument of the heads of the Catholic masses, supported by Parnell and his band, and by Fenians across the Atlantic. Under these conditions, Home Rule would have been a fatal gift, ruinous to Great Britain and Ireland alike. Suppose, for example, that an Irish Parliament, established in College Green, since 1886, had ruled Ireland during the war in South Africa. It would unquestionably have taken the side of the Boers, as the Nationalist leaders have openly done; and it would have possessed the means of doing infinite mischief. It could have passed resolutions condemning the war; have called on Irishmen to keep aloof from the British army; have discouraged recruiting throughout Ireland; have sent messages of good will to the Boer Government. But probably it would have gone far beyond these, its constitutional, rights; it could have winked at the preparation of an armed force in Ireland to be despatched to the aid of the Boers; it could have invited Foreign Powers to put a stop to the conflict; nay, it could have laid hands on the Irish taxes, and refused to 'pay tribute to an alien Government;' and what, in these cases, would have been England's means of obtaining redress, save by the power of the sword? In the instance of other wars, the same course would be followed; we cannot forget that at Nationalist meetings, the Mahdi, the Dervishes, nay, all our enemies, were the objects of the applause of shouting Irish multitudes. And as the Irish Parliament could injure England in war, so it could embarrass and annoy her, in a hundred ways, in peace. There was nothing in the Bill to prevent Protection in Ireland, for the Irish Parliament could vote bounties on Irish exports; there was nothing to prevent the issue of Irish assignats, to mask confiscation of different kinds; and recourse would not improbably be had to these very expedients. It is unnecessary to dwell on what would be the legislation of the Irish Parliament at home, and the administration of the Executive it would have a right to set up. Composed as it would be, it would abolish 'landlordism' by a stroke of the pen, or by merely preventing the recovery of rent; it would simply turn society upside down, and establish a Catholic ascendency by many degrees worse than Protestant ascendency ever was; it would, in a word, let revolution loose in the island. Protestant Ireland would, as a matter of course, resist; a savage war of race and creed would certainly follow; the scenes of 1690 and 1798 might well be repeated; and the struggle would end in general bankruptcy. England, in her own interest, and in that of her friends in Ireland, would assuredly intervene, under conditions like these; and the concession of Home Rule would probably lead to reconquest.