The present Bill is infinitely the worst of the three
Home Rule Bills which have been introduced into the Commons. Consider for a moment what has been required to make this Bill palatable to the Irish—to bribe them to accept it. Though inspired by the principle that the will of the local majority is to prevail in domestic affairs, it utterly repudiates that principle when the local majority are men of Protestant faith and non-Celtie origin and sympathies. It involves the break-up of the Customs union between the two islands and the destruction of the common purse. But in spite of this extreme autonomy it endows Ireland with an inverted tribute of two and a half millions a year out of the pockets of the British taxpayers. In these circumstances one might have contended that a body of English and Scottish representatives should be sent to the Irish Parliament to see that the tribute was properly expended. Instead of that Ireland is to send forty-two representatives into our Parliament to see that the tribute is properly paid or possibly extended in the future I While we cannot touch the domestic affairs of Ireland, these forty-two members are to interfere in all the domestic concerns of England and Scotland. Finally, the Dublin Parliament and the Dublin Executive are to rely upon us to bold down North-East Ulster while the south of Ireland teaches them the true meaning of the right of the local majority to self-government. In a word, Ireland is not only to be given self-government, but is to be heavily bribed to take it, and is to be allowed to have forty-two " men in possession" installed in the Parliament at Westminster. When one thinks of these things one can hardly wonder that the Government turn pale at the thought of submitting their Bill fo the people at a general election.
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