OF IRISH HISTORY BY R. BARRY O'BRIEN AUTHOR OF "The Life of Charles Stewart Parnell The Life of Lord BODLEIAA 14 6 1911 LIBRARY PRINTED BY SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD., London, Bath, AND NEW YORK 1911 Politics are vulgar when they are not liberalised by history, and history fades into mere literature when it loses sight of its relation to practical politics." SIR JOHN SEELEY. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. EVENTS have marched forward since the publication of this little book. In 1906 the Government of Mr. Balfour fell. The Liberals came into office. They have been in office since. Previous to the General Election of 1906, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman pledged himself to bring forward a measure of Irish Constitutional Reform "leading up to the larger policy." In 1907, the Irish people declared, at a Convention held in Dublin, that this measure "leading up to the larger policy" would not satisfy them, and they demanded the " larger policy" itself. In 1908 the House 7 |