Mr. Chamberlain, therefore, will resist the Bill, and would propose
instead, while maintaining the law, which, if the law is just, is not to be called coercion, to create "a complete system of local self-government, alike in its main features for England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales." A larger arrangement will also be found desirable, involving a delegation but not a sur- render of power, with the subjects of its exercise strictly defined, and the exercise itself subject to "the concurrent and supreme authority of the Imperial Parliament." This "would satisfy the national aspirations of Scotland and Wales," and the aspirations of Ireland are neither stronger than theirs nor more entitled to sympathy. "And it may be hoped that the people of Ireland, once placed in the enjoyment of such great privileges, will prefer their possession to the tyrannical yoke from which in 1881 it was Mr. Gladstone's chief object to relieve them." It will be noted that Mr. Cham- berlain has not defined the powers he would devolve on his statutory bodies, and though he has recently indicated the Provincial Legislatures of the Dominion of Canada as his model, it has been in very general terms.
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