Our sympathies are all with those who desire that, since
we have entered upon it, we should make a good job of Irish purchase and complete the establishment of a peasant pro- prietorship in Ireland. There is, however, something not a little amusing in the naivete with which the O'Brienite Home Rulers in effect tell the Government that they will not accept the medicine of Home Rule unless there is a sufficient allow- ance of jam with it to make it go down. No doubt from one point of view they are perfectly right in this. If Home Rule is to be passed without a new Land Purchase Bill, not a penny more will the Irish farmers get for purchase. The Unionist Party is pledged to carry on purchase as long as the Union is maintained, but it is certain that if the legislative Union is dissolved, no Unionist will agree to the minutest fraction of English credit being used for further land purchase in Ireland. We shall of course maintain the sanctity of the bargains already made, but that will be the limit.
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