Excerpt from The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 1 of 3 When twelve years ago Mr. Gladstone undertook to restore health to Ireland, many persons acquainted with the country believed that he was dealing with the outward symptoms merely of a disorder of which he mistook the nature, and that the measures which he was adopting would make the patient rather worse than better. The type of Irish agitation is so unchanging that the disease at all times is obviously the same. Various modes of treatment have been tried for it, and tried unsuccessfully; and the political physician should thus have unusual means of learning the effect to be looked for from this or that proposed remedy. It did not appear, however, ten years ago, from the language of Mr. Gladstone and the supporters of his policy, that they had taken advantage of their opportunities. They talked vaguely and violently of past mistakes, but they betrayed an imperfect acquaintance with the character of those mistakes. The subject itself indeed seemed never to have been adequately studied; and the most important authorities were only accessible in manuscript. A scientific account of the past can be the work only of many persons, one correcting the errors of another and adding something of his own. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.