LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. MORLEY'S SPEECH.
[To MR EPITQR Ow TILE " SPECTATOR."] Slit,—Mr. John Morley, in his speech on the third reading of the Home-rule Bill, is reported to have said: "But all we contend for is, that our proposals open a new way in regard to Ireland, but an old way in regard to our experience over the whole field of our self-governing Empire, where the principles on which we rely have been a uniform and great success." It may be doubted if this is true of all eases—and especially of the province of Quebec, the Colony which most resembles Ireland in the composition of its population—but in any case the difference of circumstances renders the argument so entirely fallacious and without weight, that it seems strange that it should be repeated by responsible statesmen.
In the case of all our self-governing Colonies, they had, until self-government was given, no representative institutions. The benefit to a country of representative institutions is an axiom of English politics. They secure that no law shall be passed without those who will be subject to it being heard through their representatives. They secure that every citizen shall have the means of making known his needs and wishes; and above all, they give to every citizen the training which is derived from responsibility, small indeed, but real, for the laws and for the welfare of his country. It is no wonder, therefore, that the grant of representative institutions has almost always proved a benefit to our Colonies. But what has this to do with the question of Irish Home-rule P Ireland has now all the benefits of representative institutions. Every citizen has now an equal voice with his fellows in all the laws by which he is governed ; and he will have no more if the Home-rule Bill is passed. Whether he has one voice in three hundred thousand or three millions can make no perceptible difference in his duty. The wishes of the Irish electors are heard now as much as they will be hereafter. Before the laws that govern them are made, the Member for each constituency will be as liable to be overruled by the votes of the other Members of the House, and his constituents governed by laws to which they object, in an Irish Parliament, as in the present House. How can the fact that it has proved beneficial to give repre- sentative institutions to those who had none, throw any light upon the wisdom of changing a representative system already possessed, into another and more complicated one P 1 may add, that while the Home-rule Bill will bring to Ireland none of the benefits our Colonies obtain from the Acts which con- stituted their Parliaments, the one object for which it is mainly sought, viz., to satisfy the national aspirations, has had little, if anything, to do with the grant of their Constitutions to our Colonies.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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