Mr. Chamberlain has founded a new Radical Union at Birmingham,
and on Thursday addressed its members in a most vigorous speech. He ridiculed the charge of inconsist- ency brought by a Government which changed its mind as
to the details of its great measure every twenty-four hours ; declared Irish Members inadmissible to Parliament, and then provided for their " spasmodic " admission ; which had declared the Purchase Bill an integral portion of its scheme, and then silently dropped it ; which gave Ireland the con- trol of her Customs, and then took it away. "I defy the sworn advocates of the Bill to say what it is at the present moment." Unity, he maintained, could only be secured through the absolute supremacy of one Parliament, and that depended on the full and continuous representation of all three King- doms. His own policy was to maintain that supremacy, but delegate certain powers hereafter to be defined. The Canadian Constitution would furnish the basis of a plan, especially as it allowed the entire control of criminal law and justice to remain with the central power ; but Mr. Chamberlain was careful to say that the Provincial Legislatures of Canada had both too much and too little power. He would meet the argument that Irishmen would reject such a proposal by saying that we could not know that, as the offer had never been made, and that we must not take the opinion of the American Irish, who desired only Separation, to be the opinion of the Irish people at home. If we yield to the former, we surrender not to the claim of justice, but to the fear of dynamite. Mr. Chamber- lain gave no hint of the manner in which he would meet the agrarian difficulty of Ireland.
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