Even if the Government were willing to do what the
Irish ask—that is, to settle the Lords question in no sense on its merits, but merely as an incident in the triumphal progress of Home-rule—they would fail in the attempt. Neither the majority of their supporters in Parliament nor the country as a whole would dream of consenting to give this preference to Ireland, and to make the present Parliament nothing but an instrument for destroying the Union. If, then, the Government have to depend upon the Irish to keep them in power, and the Irish Party remain, as they declare they must, in their present mood, the Government cannot retain office by their aid. The only other way by which the present Cabinet can carry on will be for them to rely upon, we will not say the support of, but an honourable understanding with Mr. Balfour and the Unionists,—an understanding that Unionists will not turn them out by any form of co-operation with the Nationalists. That Mr. Balfour and the great bulk of his followers will in principle be perfectly willing to prevent the Government from being destroyed by the Irish we do not doubt, but nevertheless the difficulties of carrying such a principle into practice are extraordinarily great. Those difficulties rest upon the fact that there is a majority in the new House of Commons against, and strongly against, the Budget. And yet the situation has so shaped itself that it is a political necessity that the Budget shall at once be passed through Parliament.
