DEVOLUTION AND HOME-RULE.
[To TEN EDITOR Or TIM "ErZOTATOR21
have to thank you, in the first place, for so kindly publishing my letter in your issue of the 9th inst., though I am afraid that you were of opinion that I did "protest too much" in it ; but I certainly took your article on the subject to mean that you did not object to a Council being set up in Dublin, the members of which were to be, some of them at any rate, elected. I am very glad to learn that I was mistaken in my reading of the article, because it seems to me that if once you admit the principle of election to any central body in Dublin, you are already half-way to a Home-rule Parliament. I fear, however, that there is little or no chance that the Government proposal will be on the modest scale that you contemplate, for I think that they are bound to meet the Nationalist demand in some measure, and surely Mr. Redmond cannot accept any " Council" that is not at the very least partly an elected one. The Nationalists have been promised an "instalment" of Home-rule, and they will take care that the Government do not evade their pledge to them. Of course I do not think it probable that the now Council will be given control all at once over police, finance, the administration of justice, &c. Its power will very likely be limited on these points to start with, but it will certainly endeavour to increase it in every way, and therein lies the danger for the future.—I am, Sir, &c., MALBY CROFTON.
Longford House, Ballisoclare, Co. Sligo.
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