6 AUGUST 1910, Page 2

We have dealt elsewhere with the whole question of "Home-

rule all round," and the extreme peril which the nation will be in if any serious attempt is made to wreck the Acts of Union, Acts which are the very foundation of the national welfare. Here we would make a special appeal to Scotsmen not to be misled by the notion that they can benefit by the proposals now put forward. If they are carried, there must be a financial readjustment which will be extremely injurious to Scotland. Scotland would have to pay her just proportion of Imperial charges, but must expect no financial aid of any kind for internal administration. Again, the political weight of the purely English Parliament must of necessity be very great, and that Parliament is likely to have a preponderating Conservative majority. No doubt many of our new Federalists imagine that England will be split up into Cantons, and there- fore that this inconvenience, as they would call it, would not occur. We would warn them not to trust to such a belief. We do not believe that the people of England will ever consent to the virtual destruction of the Acts of Union, but if they do we are quite certain of one thing. Eagland will remain together, one and undivided. Englishmen will not for one moment tolerate the idea of creating Cantons of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Lancashire, and 'Yorkshire, or any other such pernicious and pedantic monstrosities.