the Government, removed by the system of rotten boroughs from
all effectual popular control. Its friends would describe it
as essentially the government of Ireland by the gentlemen of
Ireland and especially the landlord class.

"Neither representation would be altogether true, but each
contains a large measure of truth. The nature of the Irish
constituencies and the presence in the House of Commons of a
body of pensioners and placemen forming considerably more than
a third of the whole assembly, and nearly half of its active
members, gave the Government a power, which, except under
very rare and extraordinary circumstances, must, if fully
exercised, have been overwhelming ... On the other hand,
the Irish Parliament was a body consisting very largely of
independent country gentlemen, who on nearly all questions
affecting the economical and industrial development of the
country, had a powerful if not a decisive influence ... and
it was in reality only in a small class of political questions
that the corrupt power of government seems to have been
strained. The Irish House of Commons ... comprised the flower
of the landlord class. It was essentially pre-eminently the
representative of the property of the country. It had all the
instincts and the prejudices, but also all the qualities
and the capacities, of an educated propertied class, and it
brought great local knowledge and experience to its task. Much
of its work was of that practical and unobtrusive character
which leaves no trace in history."