If Mr. Parnell had but added that the presence of
South African representatives at Westminster, who would no more permit the United Kingdom to interfere in ordinary South African local politics than China would allow it to interfere in Chinese local politics, would be a great assistance to the Irish representatives in throwing off all control from Westminster, he would have said, we imagine, what was still nearer to his thought. In a word, Mr. Parnell has no objection at all to Irish representatives at Westminster, on condition that they are there to interfere in the affairs of the Empire, and to resist all attempts at interference in the doings of the Irish Parliament. But that was hardly, we suppose, the motive which actuated so large a section of the Gladstonian Party in insisting on the retention of the Irish Members. They were to be retained to enable Parliament to control the Irish Legislature, without the injustice of deciding Irish affairs in the absence of Irish representatives, not because they are so urgently wanted for the Empire.
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