The Second Reading of the Restoration of Order Bill for
Ireland was taken in the House of Commons on Thursday week. Mr. Asquith declared that of all the Coercion Bills be had seen applied to Ireland this was the worst. He recalled the position in the spring of 1918 when, he said, the atmosphere and temper in Ireland were better than they had ever been within the memory of man. Yet at that moment the Government bad deliberately introduced Conscription, though of course Conscrip- tion had. remained a dead letter. Simultaneously they had promised to bring forward a liberal measure of self- government. That promise had not been fulfilled. The result in Ireland had been to destroy what little confi- dence had remained in Parliamentary actions. The growing predominance of Sinn Fein and the revolutionary movement were the natural sequels. He was sure even now that if a large measure of Dominion Home Rule were granted, the majority of the Irish people would be satisfied. He appealed to the Government to take Ireland into their confidence.
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