WHAT IRELAND REALLY THINKS OF HOME RULE.
[To min EDITOR OP TRY " SPECTATOR:] Sin,—May I call your attention to enclosed cutting from the Irish correspondent's news to the Guardian of June 13th, also a cutting from the Northern. Whig of June 4th, as to "special privileges" conferred "on the Irish liquor trade "P These should afford food for thought to those of your readers interested in religious teaching and temperance, and especially at a time when it is proposed to force a change of Govern- ment upon a portion. of the United Kingdom which has in every possible way shown its dislike and dread of the same.— "Hitherto Churchmen have been able to regard our National Board with a measure of satisfaction, owing to the working of an effective [conscience] clause. But the National Board have now taken a stop which threatens the distinctive liberty of each denomi- nation to give its own teaching. The Commissioners have authorized a copy of the Ten Commandments for hanging up in National Schools which omits the word image,' and also the line 'Thou shalt not bow down to them.' This tampering with the Decalogue in order to avoid collision with Roman practices is serious in itself, but insult is added to injury when it is further ordered that the correct version of the Ten Commandments is not to be displayed in National Schools under Church managership. This injunction is an outrageous violation of all principles of fair play, inasmuch as statues and varied religious emblems are constantly to be found in the schools under Roman Catholic management. This new departure is bound to evoke prolonged and bitter criticism."—Tha Guardian, June 13th, 1913.
"Mr. M'Mordie has given notice of the following question for Monday To ask the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the Belfast and North of Ireland Grocers' Association have recently made an appeal to the Government to amend the Shops Act, in order that all grocers in Ireland, whether holding a spirit licence or not, may be put on an equal footing as regards the weekly half- holiday, and the injustice which the Act imposes on ordinary grocers removed by giving the spirit-grocer, in virtue of his licence, no greater privileges than those accorded to mixed shops; and if it is the intention of the Government to propose an amend- ment of the Shops Act in response to this appeal.' The instance referred to by Mr. M`Mordie is one out of several in which this 'temperance' Government, with the assistance and support of Radical temperance' members, has conferred special privileges on the Irish liquor trade. Under the Children Act no child under fourteen can be admitted to any apartment where drink is sold in the licensed houses of Great Britain. There is no such restriction on the Irish shopkeeper who sells liquor for consumption on the premises at one side of his shop and grocery or drapery at the other. Again, under this Government's arrangements, the licence duties in Great Britain have been raised by something like 100 per cent.; in Ireland they have been raised less than 10 per cent. Yet, while keeping eloquently silent on these things, Separatist politicians like the Rev. Silvester Home take it upon themselves to criticize the Irish Unionist members because they do not vote for the Scottish Temperance Bill, with the aid of which tho Government is thinking to buy Scottish temperance support for the sale of the Irish Loyalists to their enemies."—The Northers Whig, June 4th, 1913.
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