Sir Charles Dilke has issued a paper in which he
invites the politicians of the Gladatonian party to consider whether some very moderate scheme of Home-rule,—partaking ap. parently more of a provincial local government than of a true Home-rule policy,—might not be devised which would at once satisfy the cravings of Scotland and Wales, while re- ducing Irish demands to a more tolerable form than that taken in either of Mr. Gladstone's Bills. He would like to see Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England all enjoying a sort of Home-rule, but hardly one that would involve four true Parliaments, in the sense in which the Parliament of the United Kingdom is a Parliament. And he promises to discuss the subject at the Gloucester political meetings of next January which he proposes to attend. Of this design of his we are quite sure that all Unionists will heartily approve. The more the subject is discussed, the more obvious it will become that anything going at all beyond what is now called local government in this country, will lead to difficulties so profound that they will utterly dishearten the Gladstonians and show them that any practical result is out of the question. If they offer Ireland a very petty measure of self-government, the Irishmen will cry off, and if they propose to split up Great Britain into really separate provinces or cantons, they will find the Gladstonian party melting away into nonentity. Certainly Sir Charles Dilke is not the man to solve the problem.
Previous page
