Mr. Redmond, who followed Mr. Balfour, expressed a tepid approval
of the Bill. It did not conflict with the aspirations of Home-rulers for complete self-government, and therefore might be accepted. Needless to say, Mr. Redmond made no suggestion that the Bill would be accepted by Irishmen as a remedy for their alleged grievances. We do not, of course, blame him for this ; but we must protest, and in the strongest terms at our command, against his untrue and odious suggestion that twenty years of resolute government by the Unionists have diminished the, population of Ireland by a million. Mr•. Redmond must know that the diminution in the Irish population is due to economic causes,—causes which are affecting rural communities throughout the civilised world. No doubt other influences have stimulated, the drain on the population in the case of Ireland ; but these influences were not aet in motion by the Unionist Government, but by the cruel and lawless organisations which, with the consent, direct or indirect, of Mr. Redmond and his colleagues, have kept Ireland during the greater part of the last twenty years in a condition of misery and unrest. Murder•, boycotting, intimida- tion, the houghing of cattle, and a hundred other• forms of tyranny, oppression, and injustice, have done far more to create the conditions under which the population of Ireland has tended to decline than the work of maintaining law and order undertaken by the Unionist Government. Mr. Redmond's cant is even more inexcusable than that of Mr. Birrell. In the end, and after the Closure had been applied, the Bill was read a first time by a majority of 295 (416 votes to 121). That it will become law is doubtful. That the Government will not
venture to appeal to the country on it if it is thrown out by the Lords is certain.
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