We are glad to note that Mr. Horace Plunkett, the
Unionist candidate in Dublin County, has very pluckily refused to promise to vote against giving Irish Roman Catholics the kind of University education they desire. If he is returned to Parliament, as we sincerely hope he will be, the cause for which Mr. Arthur Balfour pleaded with such statesmanship and eloquence in the last Parliament will be distinctly advanced. Mr. Balfour, it is evident, is as convinced as ever of the wisdom of satisfying W moderate Roman Catholic demands on this matter, and after the way in which he sacrificed his own predilections two years ago we cannot believe that his colleagues and his party will refuse to follow his advice. The present Government has already done a great deal not only to render the Land Acts more workable, but to improve the material development of Ireland. If it will also solve the University problem, its record in Ireland should be above that of any Government during the present century. Another reform which will not be so welcome in Ireland must, however, in our °pin' taken with equal inflexibility. That is the reduction over-representation of Ireland. No historical pleadings and no political sophistries can get over the fact that it is a gross injustice that a voter when he happens to live in Ireland should be endowed with so great an excess of electoral power. Not all anomalies are bad, but here is one without the slightest reason or excuse. Let Ireland, like Scotland, have her just share of representatives and no more.
Previous page
