We note with the utmost satisfaction the able and uncom-
promising Manifesto on Home-rule issued by the Reveille Movement which appeared in last Saturday's papers. "Should the Unionist Party cease to be Unionist," the
Manifesto declares, "it would cease to be a serious factor in the State, and would deservedly decay and perish." The theorists and armchair politicians who have no right to speak in the name of Unionism, but have the ear of certain Unionist newspapers, "are endeavouring to pilot the party towards the dangerous abyss of Home-rule vici one or other of its many aliases." Even if the present mancenvres got beyond the backstairs stage, the problem would remain insoluble, "because Dublin cannot do without Belfast, and Belfast will not bow the knee to Dublin." As for the alleged Imperial advantages of the move, the Manifesto declares that it passes the wit of the theorists to indicate how the disruption of the United Kingdom can possibly promote the consolidation of the Empire. Some of the Dominions may entertain an academic attachment to Home-rule, but none is prepared to create a genuine Imperial Parliament. Until they are pre- pared to do so, "the case for federalising the British Isles, which merely means the multiplication of unwanted Parlia- ments, is unworthy the consideration of the British people." We have never read a party manifesto on a subject of great political moment which was more worthy of praise. It rings absolutely true, and is not degraded by any shuffles, subter- fuges, hedgings, and attempts to make out that in the world of politics things can both be and not be at the same time.
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