We are glad to note that on Wednesday Mr. Long
drew attention to the very disturbing phrases used by the Prime Minister in regard to the Government's Irish proposals. He had suggested that the model to be followed was the Colonial form of self,government. If Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman really means to inaugurate any system which can possibly be described as Colonial, he plait be prepared to be opposed by the whole force of Unionist opinion. We also agree with Mr. Long in his declaration that Devolution proposals of this sort would be distinctly in contradiction to the declarations which Ministers and their supporters made so frequently during the General Election. These were to the effect that Home-rule was not before the electors and formed no part of the immediate policy of the Government, and that no proposal of the kind would be made during the present Parliament. To proposals intended, as Mr. Long put it, to bring peace and contentment to Ireland, and thus to put an end to the attempts at separation, we shall give our heartiest support. Schemes, however, which are merely intended to further the policy of a separate Parliament and separate Executive we shall oppose, not only as ruinous to the welfare both of Great Britain and Ireland, but -also as distinctly a breach of Liberal electoral pledges. But we must remember that the Government scheme has not yet been produced. Until it has been produced, we refuse to believe that they can contemplate a policy so unjust, so disastrous, and so little consistent with good faith as Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- man's words might seem to foreshadow.
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