Mr. Asquith, addressing his constituents in the Town Hall, Leven,
on Monday night, declared that the first duty of the Government was to fulfil their primary mandate, i.e., to embody in a legislative form the proposals for Home-rule, which received the sanction of the electorate in 1892. "We presented a scheme which we believed at the time, and which I believe now, to have been wise, prudent, and just." After having thus pronounced the customary panegyric on Home-rule with more than ordinary fervour, Mr. Asquith went on to deny that the overtures of the Government had met with any rebuff from 'foreign Powers, and to defend the home Administration of himself and his colleagues. We have dealt with the rest of the speech—that concerned with the House of Lords—else- where ; and will only quote here Mr. Asquith's declaration that the question to be put to the nation at the next Election was whether "legislation shall be postponed and rendered in many cases impossible, or at any rate useless, by the action of a non-representative body." Home-rule, then, is to be at best but a concurrent cry.
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