NEWS OF TIM WEEK.
ON Thursday Mr. Asquith introduced what we do not hesitate to describe as the most unjust, unworkable, insincere, and so the worst of the three Bills devised for regulating the political relations between the two islands. We have death with the principles of the new measure else- where, but before we deal in detail with Mr. Asquith's speech we desire to insist here also that the Bill is cowardly as well as foolish. The Government were afraid of giving the Nationalists what they wanted—that is, at the least, Colonial Home Rule. They have accordingly bribed them, and bribed them heavily, into accepting a good deal less to begin with. But this is not all. At the same time they have provided the Nationalists with an instrument for extorting in the future full Colonial powers. That instrument is the group of forty Irish members which is to he present in the Imperial Parliament, and is to be capable of voting on all English and Scotch legislation and of choosing the Government. As the Nationalists will thus in the end have both the bribe and the full powers, they are naturally enough content. The Government are in fact playing the part of a man entrusted with the work of guard- ing a door beset by enemies. He refuses to let them in at once, but provides them with a large bag of gold, and at the same time hands them out a crow-bar amply strong enough to break down the door. That is the Government's idea of preserving the Union and safeguarding the integrity of the United Kingdom.
