Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The problem of governing Ireland presented difficulties in the latter part of the fifteenth century, as perplexing as those with which we are confronted in the nineteenth. For obvious reasons the solution of those difficulties cannot be discussed here. The all but universal aspiration of the Irish people for some form of national Parliament has been intensified by the misgovernment of half a millennium. Its concession, absolute and without restriction, to the extent of creating elective County Boards, charged with the administration of those local affairs which do not trench upon matters of Imperial concern, is demanded by every principle of political morality, and is the condition of the maintenance of the Union.
Nothing was further from the purpose of Richard III. than to make such concessions.