THE HOME-RULE BILL.
[To TIM EDITOR OF THE "?ROTATOR.']
Sin,—Calm consideration of the text of the Home-rule Bill— Mr. Gladstone's last will and testament on the Irish Question —has removed any doubt I ever entertained of the impossi- bility of producing an equitable settlement on Home-rule lines. To persons ignorant of the social and economic conditions of Ireland, it may appear that this amended Bill is an acceptable solution. On the face of it, it certainly must be admitted to be less Separatist. The retention of Irish Members at West- minster, and the constitution of the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council as an ultimate Court of Appeal on matters of dispute as to ultra vires legislative proposals of the Irish Legislature, seem fairly to guarantee the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament.
But what the present Bill has gained in diminished Separatism, it more than loses in the entire absence of real guarantees against oppression of minorities. While the Bill stifles every wholesome and legitimate aspiration after nation- hood, it satisfies only one Irish craving,—viz., the greed of spoliation which has grown up of late years in Ireland.
Whereas, in the Home-rule proposals of 1886, it was emphatically declared that obligations of honour compelled the simultaneous introduction of a. Land-purchase measure, Mr. Gladstone is able now to reconcile it to his conscience to leave the ultimate settlement of the Land question to the Irish Legislature, certain to include the authors of the "Plan of Campaign" and Michael Davitt amongst its leaders. The substance of the famous words is as true now as in January, 1885, when Mr. John Morley uttered them at Chelmsford, that the Legislature, to its honour, having rendered it impos- sible for Irish landlords to confiscate the improvements of their tenants, it only remained to devise some scheme to pre- vent the confiscation of the property of the landlords by the tenants.
As Mr. John Morley was not above defending himself against the charge of packing the "Evicted Tenants Com- mission" by citing, as a proof of his impartiality, his nomina- tion of the notoriously Nationalist Mr. Redington as a landlords' representative, one cannot be any longer surprised at his following Mr. Gladstone in throwing what he formerly considered political obligations of honour to the winds.
Nobody knows better than Mr. Morley, that the landlords are as certain to be in as hopeless a minority in the proposed Legislative Council as in the Lower Chamber. The con- stitution of the existing Town Councils and Boards of Guardians, as far as they are elected, give a certain indication of the composition of the future Irish Parliament, if it should unhappily ever come into existence.—I am, Sir, &c., Le Maquis, St. Raphael (Var), France. W. H. HALL.
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