The Duke of Devonshire made a very effective speech in
the Ulster Hall, Belfast, yesterday week. He pointed out that Mr. Asquith, while maintaining that it would be absurd to dis- solve on the refusal of the House of Lords to pass the Home- rule Bill, has proclaimed the hearty willingness of the Government to dissolve if the House of Lords rejects "One man, one vote." This is equivalent to admitting that the country is not with the Government on Irish Home-rule, though it is with it on the question of "One man, one vote." Ministers are perfectly willing to consult the country on any issue on which they believe that they are on the popular side, but not at all willing to consult it on the Irish issue,—a very significant difference of attitude. As for Ireland itself, the Duke of Devonshire observed that there was abso- lutely no exultation when the Home-rule Bill passed the Commons, and absolutely no excitement or sign of resent- ment when the House of Lords peremptorily threw it out. There had never, he said, been such concealment as there is concerning the intentions of the Government with regard to Home-rule next Session, Mr. Gladstone asserting that it would reappear above the waves in which it had been overwhelmed, and Mr. Morley and Mr. Asquith assuming that it would be shelved altogether next Session. The policy of the Govern- ment was almost as dark and tortuous about Home-rule as the plots of the Jacobites in the early part of the last cen- tury. "Never till now" has such secrecy "been the policy of an English statesman."
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