The debate was resumed on Tuesday by Mr. Walter Long.
The financial clauses, he declared, breathed distrust of the Irish people, and he and his friends would oppose the Bill to the last. Mr. T. P. O'Connor declared that the opponents of the Bill were fighting against the Empire and the whole world ; and Mr. Healy welcomed the Bill, though it was five millions worse for Ireland than Mr. Gladstone's Bill of 1886. The huge increase of national expenditure since then was the reason why this Irish question was vital. "You may be a great Empire," continued Mr. Healy, " but we can't afford you." Mr. Bonar Law condemned the Bill as a partial gift of autonomy ; therefore it could not be a permanent settlement. The granting of Home Rule would harm -Irish industries and promote smuggling. As for guarantees nothing was more clear than that one democratic Parliament could not control another democratic Parliament. The opposition of Ulster made the granting of Home Rule impossible. The recent meeting at Belfast was not a political demonstration, but the expression of the soul of the people. They were ready to lay down their lives in what they believed to be the cause of justice and liberty. He met the Premier's taunts about a new style by charging the Government with setting up a new standard of decency. Mr. Asquith gave a solemn pledge to reform the House of Lords, but the debt of honour must wait till he had paid his debt of shame. The Government would not be able to carry this Bill without submitting it to the people of the country. They would succeed only in breaking the Parliamentary machine.
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