In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. Agar-Robartes moved
an amendment to the Home Rule Bill exempting the counties of Antrim, Down, Londonderry, and Armagh from its operation. The result was a debate continued on Thursday and then adjourned which was in our opinion by far the most instructive and important of any that has yet taken place on the Home Rule question—a debate which showed in the strongest possible way the weakness of the Government case and their complete enslavement to their Irish masters. We have dealt at length with the subject elsewhere and cannot find space here to analyse in detail the various speeches. We may point out, however, that Mr. Bonar Law spoke with great good sense and feeling and showed how ridiculous is the plea that the question of the exemption of Ulster is too subtle a point to be understood by the ordinary man. In truth it is perfectly simple. Every- body understands that there are degrees of iniquity, and that, assuming that some Home Rule Bill must pass, it is better to limit than to extend the area of the evil, and, further, that Home Rule without the horrors of armed insurrection is better than Home Rule plus those horrors. A minimising of these evils, if successful, does not in the least alter Unionist feeling towards the Bill; or their determination, if they can, to defeat it as a whole.
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