But the most important part of Mr. Morley's speech was
his frank avowal that Mr. Gladstone and the Home-rulers cannot and will not deliberate in public on their new scheme for retaining the Irish Members at Westminster, and yet establishing an Irish Parliament and Administration in Dublin, and mean to keep their purpose to themselves till they have fully matured it in private conclave. He also added : —"It is absurd to pretend, as our opponents do, that because we desire to give to Ireland a local Legislature and a local Executive, responsible to it for the management of her own internal affairs, we are therefore bound by logical compulsion to throw the whole Constitution into the melting-pot, and instantly change the relations of Great Britain into federal relations." That is a pretty sharp snub for Mr. Asquith
and the Pall Mall Gazette, especially as Mr. Gladstone was understood, in his speeches in the South-West, to have distinctly encouraged Scotch and Welsh Home-rule. It is clear that the Home-rulers are profoundly divided as to the next step in the agitation, and that Lord Spencer and Mr. John Morley are amongst the opponents of full-blown Federalism.
