Lord Rosebery showed, what we do not at all object
to admitting, that, things remaining as they are, the Irish vote has no more illegitimate influence over the English, than the English or Welsh or Scotch has over that of the other portions of the United Kingdom. Of course not; but if things are not to remain as they are,—if the Irish are to have a separate Parliament of their own, to which no Englishman or Welsh- man or Scotchman is admitted, and if no other section of the Kingdom is to have this privilege,—then the Irish vote ie bribed by the offer of special privileges in the shape of exclusive influence over the affairs of the rest of the United Kingdom. On the subject of abolishing the veto of the House of Lords, Lord Rosebery was extremely enig- matical. He disclaimed entirely any constitutional power to interfere with the House of Lords without its own assent. Then how in the world can he take away its veto without its own assent P The House of Commons can no more take away the Lords' veto by resolution, than it can abolish the Lords themselves by resolution. It is just as impossible to abolish a great political trust by arbitrary resolution, as it is to suppress the trustees themselves.
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