Ireland is still going on with its agitation for a
" home Govern-
• ment," but it does not appear to be very zealously pursued. On Thursday week a meeting assembled in the Round Room of the E.otunda to promote the object of obtaining an independent local -or municipal Government for Ireland, dealing with the affairs of the Island, but not with those of the Empire. The meeting is described as having been neither crowded nor one of the highest influence, —containing only three Members of Parliament ; but the speak- ing and resolutions appear to have been moderate enough. The truth is simply that the agitation just now is quite premature. -There can be no more intrinsic reason why Irish affairs should mot be well managed without a local Parliament, than there is why Scotch affairs cannot be managed without the same dangerous machinery. That it has not been possible hitherto, is no reason why it should not be so with Parliaments as willing as the present to legislate for the local affairs of Ireland on principles pleasing to the Irish. Every one must see that power is very dangerously risked, and a great many opportunities for bitter fend opened, by a formal division between local and imperial affairs. If the Irish cannot be fairly treated without it, well and good. But why be- gin the agitation on the first clear sign that Ireland can gain what she wants without so dangerous an experiment?
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