The scandal of the Government policy — we can call it no,
iess—is that an interregnum of at le-ast two or three years
to exist in which, though the House of Lords has been paralysed as a part of the Legislature, no effort is to be made to reform it or to put another Chamber in its place. This is apart of the unwritten or, if you will, unspoken bargain with the Irish Party. Unless they are given that period of inter regnum in which a Home Rule Bill may be passed, and in which the House of Commons, and the House of Commons alone, is to act, they have no use for the present Government, and would at once place them in a minority. The creation of the interregnum is the price at which the Government hold office, or, to put it in another way, the Irish will not allow the establishment of a Second Chamber or the reform of the Lords till they have passed their Home Rule Bill, under what is, in f act, Single-Chamber Government. It is a monstrous situ ation, but calling things by their proper names will not alter facts, and unhappily there seems no prospect of the country waking up to the true situation until a Home Rule Bill is introduced. Then, no doubt, the awakening will take place. Heaven grant it will not be too late ! As we have said before, however, this situation, bad as it is, will not, in our opinion, be improved by forcing upon the Government so revolutionary a measure as the creation of peers. Plunging is never a wise proceeding for those who find themselves in a morass, no matter who is to blame for their being there.
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