Note 1 — IV. The Working of the State.

A parallel instance may serve to show how the working of the State, taken at a moment of indecision, was turned against itself. In the fifteenth century England was plunged into a dynastic war. Those who have read the documents of the time will know with what perfidy that war was marked. The English barons openly sold their swords to the highest bidder as a natural thing. Treachery and insecurity were rife on every hand. Now, if an enemy had invaded England at that moment, and had been willing to pay the extra prices that would have been demanded of a foreigner, and, where this was not possible, had turned passion and party strength against passion and party strength, taking care to balance the contending forces evenly, such an enemy could have entrenched himself in the country, and in the course of time have defied ejectment. England was spared this misfortune; Ireland was not.