Mr. Balfour's weighty and earnest speech has also done an
invaluable service, as it has shown that the intense serious- ness of the situation in Ulster, so far from being reduced, is aggravated by ignoring it in the happy-go-lucky manner of Mr. Birrell. The Government, said Mr. Balfour, might dis- solve before. they advised the King to sign the Bill, or they Might defer dissolution till the Bill was on the Statute-book, but before the Act came into operation. If rumour were true, the Government inclined to the latter policy. But this policy was not only wildly imprudent, it was grossly immoral. If the country was in favour of Home Rule, nothing what- ever would be lost by submitting the question to the electors before asking for the King's signature. If the Government put off the election, they would be guilty of the shameless proceeding of asking the opinion of the country after all the passions of Ireland had been aroused, both in the south and the north.
