6 AUGUST 1910, Page 2

We fully realise the temptation which some Englishmen will feel

to keep their financial and legislative affairs to them- selves, and to get rid, as they will say, of the domination of the Celtic fringes. If Ireland, Wales, and Scotland have separate Parliaments, the English Parliament will always be controlled by a Whig majority,—that is, by a majority of moderate and sober-minded men who will understand the importance of safeguarding the great commercial and political interests of the country. But this temptation is one that must be resisted at all costs. The indulgence of such political selfishness would, as we have shown elsewhere, be the ruin of the nation and the Empire. We must not buy immunity from Lloyd-Georgian finance, or even from schemes for estab- lishing single-Chamber rule, at such a price as that.