Speaking at a Liberal meeting at Swindon on Monday— the
first of a series of political harangues intended to show that Home Rule is the mildest of measures—Mr. John Redmond said they had nothing to conceal about Home Rne, and he intended to put it before them as a business propositior. They were not asking for a repeal of the Union, only for a readjustment of the terms ; not for a co-ordinate sovereign Parliament—which Ireland had for 600 years and more—but a subordinate Parliament similar to the twenty-eight subordinate Parliaments already existing in different portions of the British Empire. He repudiated the insinuation that Roman Catholics could not be trusted, contending that at present it was the Protestants who were intolerant. Any safeguards which Great Britain or Irish Protestants wanted they could have in their Home Rule Bill, but the best and only real safeguard was trust in the people. Home Rule was not an Irish but a great Imperial question. It meant the reconciliation of two nations and two races. It would make for the happiness and liberty of both, and for the reconciliation of the Irish race throughout the world. In fine, it would make not merely for the happiness and welfare of the British Empire, but for the peace of the whole civilized world.
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