THE LORD CHANCELLOR AND HOME RULE. [To THE EDITOR OP
THY " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—To anyone who may require three unanswerable argu- ments against the Home Rule case, I would suggest that he peruse an article appearing in the March number of the Con- temporary Review, which is a reproduction of one that appeared in the same Review in 1892- It is sufficient for my purpose, however, to quote the following extracts, and, if these words do not contain an irrefutable case against this policy, then all I can say is that I fail to understand the English language I Lord Loreburn (then Mr. Reid) wrote as follows (and he now re-endorses his views) :-- "Absolute exclusion of Irish Members means an alteration in the status of Ireland which must either be followed by her release from all contributions to Imperial expenditure, or provoke an unanswerable complaint of inferiority to every other self-governing part of the Empire.
"Retention of Irish Members, with liberty to take part as hereto- fore by voice and vote on all subjects, affixes a disadvantage to England and Scotland by daily subjecting them to Irish inter- ference in their internal affairs. . . .
" Retention of Irish Members, with liberty to take part only upon Imperial questions, . . . involves such instability that the mere necessity of avoiding constant changes of Government would weaken the authority of the House of Commons and thereby enhance that of the Crown or the House of Lords."
Lord Loreburn then goes on to review the results of these three policies. He rejects the first two as being quite hopeless, and in a faint-hearted way adopts the last, coupled, however, with these qualifying remarks, viz. :—
"The third method would be free from injustice except that created by the worry, complication, and impotence inseparable
from a constant succession of short-lived Governments ...
Sir, I submit that a more convincing argument against this disastrous policy of Home Rule baa never been enunciated. True it is that the whole trend of his Lordship's arguments is that some form of Home Rule is inevitable, but a more palpable example of the policy of despair can hardly be conceived. I would therefore commend to all those, either on the platform or in the Press, who are engaged in denouncing Home Rule that they should first turn to the lucid and eloquent article of the Lord Chancellor for material best calculated to encourage resistance to this mad scheme of disintegration of the Empire.
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