Such
is the geographical position of Great Britain that its countries
should be, not one, but united, each with its own parliament, but still
one parliament for all."
Although forty years have passed without the fulfillment of Kossuth's
prophetic declaration of a public policy, its realization is not only
possible, but probable. To the American mind, with our experience and
traditions, such a solution of the Irish question seems easy,
practicable, safe. We have States larger than Ireland, States smaller
than Ireland, in which the doctrine of self-government finds a
practical application. Not free from evils, not free from
maladministration; but if our States are judged at half-century
intervals, it will appear that they are moving with regular and certain
steps towards better conditions. There is not one American State in
which the condition of the people in matters of education, in personal
and public morals, in industrial intelligence, in wealth and in the
means of further improvement, has not been advanced, essentially, in
the last fifty years. If all the apprehensions touching the evils and
dangers of self-government in Ireland were well founded, there is an
assurance in our experience that the people themselves would discover
and apply an adequate remedy.
Kossuth was an orator; and every orator is of necessity something of a
prophet.
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