Mr. Childers on Friday week made at Dalbeattie a compara-
tively moderate speech in favour of Home-rule. He wished, after solving the Land Question, to give Ireland a Parliament of her own, with an Executive responsible to it, bat to have an Imperial Parliament also representing the Three Kingdoms, and retaining full control over "everything that had to do with the Crown, with our foreign, Colonial, and Indian affairs ; questions of peace and war, the government and the maintenance of the Army and Navy, and all other armed forces, our foreign trade, customs and revenue, and excise ; revenues on castomable articles, the currency and coinage and patents, and Courts of Appeal, from all the Courts in her Majesty's dominions, including Ireland." Cannot Mr. Childers perceive that under our system of responsible government, Irish Members would under his scheme- govern England even in strictly local matters ? That into say, they could turn out a Ministry nominally on a question of Imperial taxation, but really to get rid of, say, the English Established Church. We wonder how long he thinks that Ireland, thus enfranchised, would pay a war-tax levied, say, on whisky by the Imperial Parliament, or would bear with Imperial Excise officers seizing stills of potheen in every country parish ? Yet, without control of the Excise, as he admits, no spirit-duties could be levied.
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