TOPICS OF THE DAY.
EXCLUSION.
IN our opinion, it is not fair to put pressure upon Mr. Asquith to say at once whether he does or does not mean to propose Exclusion. The difficulties within his party are many and great, and we must be content to let him surmount them in his own way. At the same time, it is impossible for us not to recognize the dangers, or, if you will, the necessary evils, of uncertainty. Indeed, recog- nition of them is distinctly prudent, for it is the best method of minimizing such evils. In the confused discussion that is now going on people are inclined to forget what is the object of the policy of Exclusion, and, ignoring that object, begin to discuss the proposal on its merits. Look- ing beyond the plain desire to prevent civil war, they try to attach responsibilities and obligations to Exclusion which are likely to cause great obstacles to the treaty of peace now pending. For example, we find even the Westminster Gazette, -which we are bound to say has played a very reasonable and honourable part in this matter, talking as if agreement to the Exclusion of Ulster involved an admission in favour of a Federal scheme, to be applied later to the whole of the United Kingdom. It has gone further, and talked of bringing the whole Con- stitutional problem, the question of House of Lords reform and Second Chamber government, into the Exclusion settlement. To speak frankly, this will never do. There are thousands of people in this country who, like ourselves, can agree to Exclusion, nay, even urge it, but who cannot consent to be committed to anything beyond-Exclusion pure and simple. Upon Exclusion pure and simple, though none of us may like it for itself, we can all agree. Our agreement, however, is strictly limited. We agree that it will save us from civil war, that it will extricate every- body from the tight place into which they have either got themselves or been placed by circumstances, and so we accept it; but there our agreement ends. While we can all agree to Exclusion in order to save us from the greater evil, we not only cannot obtain a general agreement as to Exclusion being a half-way house to this or that further change, but if any section tries to earmark it in this way we are certain to end in violent dis. agreement. We shall lose hold of the plank which, -as things are, can alone save us all from drowning. We are all Anti-Civil-Warites, whether we be Home Rulers, Unionists, Federationists, or Anti-Federationists. There- fore we can all agree upon the anti-civil-war policy of Exclusion. If, however, we begin to talk as if Exclusion committed us to this or that supplementary development, the game is up. Once again, let us keep our eye upon the immediate object of saving the country from the ruin of civil war.
Next, we must remember that till Exclusion is passed, and we are out of the wood of civil war, it is the duty of all good citizens not to say or do anything which may cause heat or aggravate the crisis. And here we would address ourselves first and specially to our own side—to the Unionist Party. No doubt the temptation to talk about the Government yielding, of their being "on the run," of having got themselves into a hole and of being found out, of their Bill being dead already, is a great one, but it is a temptation to which Unionists must sternly refuse to yield. Their duty at the moment is not to embarrass the Government, not to keep them in their tight place, but to help them out of it—needless to say, not from any love of the Government, but because if we Unionists do not help them out of the tight place they will drag us and the whole country into it with them. One of those rare crises has arisen in which it is the business of the Opposition not to oppose the Government. In a sense, we are every one of us in the hole, and it is the duty of every one of us to lend a hand to pull the coach out. Recrimination at this moment can do no good, and may lead to national ruin. After all, the appeal we make to Unionists is for action which should come natural to them. They are, on their own profession, the guardians of the Constitution. Whatever else they are, they are anti-revolutionaries, they are for maintaining the fabric of government, they are for keeping the engine of State on the rails, and no appeal to them in this direction should ever go unheeded. It is an essential part of their duty to be prepared to do things which are disagree- able to them, as a party, in a high degree, and which may lead to great sacrifices—provided they can thereby save the fabric of the State. The Duke of Wellington is for them the capital example. They must never refuse to tinge their policy with that element of self-sacrificing patriotic opportunism which he displayed at the two great crises caused by Catholic Emancipation and Reform. Curiously enough, to what are supposed to be the extreme section of the Unionists, we mean the men of -Ulster, no appeal is necessary. They, at any rate, are not in doubt or confusion of mind, and there is no danger of their committing blunders from negligence or want of appreciation of the consequences of their acts or words. Their policy is clear, and inspires us with no fears that they will unconsciously Rounder into some morass. The imminent and terrible danger in which they are has, naturally enough, quickened their appreciation of the situa- tion. They walk as carefully and as steadily as do brave men who are treading a narrow path at the edge of some Alpine precipice. They will fight to the death rather than be forced under a Dublin Parliament. They will net fight or take any extra-Constitutional or extra-legal action if they are excluded from that Parliament—i.e., if their political status, their citizenship, remains what it is. The only point on which there can be any doubt as to the Ulster- men's action is whether Ulster as a whole should be the unit excluded, or only the six Plantation counties. No doubt if we take Ulster as a whole there is a considerable majority of Protestants and Loyalists. If, however, the three Celtic counties of Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan, in which the majority look to Dublin rather than to Belfast, are left out, we get a far more homogeneous Ulster. Now we venture to say that the six counties will make a far better unit for Exclusion than the nine. Exclusion must rest on a firm basis, and it will rest upon a snuck firmer basis if the three Celtic counties are not included.
If we were Home Rulers and Nationalists, compelled to accept Exclusion for temporary strategic purposes, we should go strongly for the Exclusion of all Ulster and not of the six Plantation counties. The inclusion in the excluded area of the three Celtic counties would provide a lever for bring. big about an upset of the Exclusion compromise in the future. We should have a pied a, terre from which to work Nationalist schemes for making the government of Ulster as a Palatinate county of England impossible. If, however, Exclusion only covers the six Plantation counties, it will be based upon a rock which cannot be shaken, so homogeneous will be the unit, and so great the Pro- testant and Loyalist majority. But why say more ? Though it may be asking too much of Ulsterznen that they should themselves cut the three Celtic counties adrift, we are as certain as we can be of anything that Ulster will not fight on such a punctilio. Even though the men of the North may feel hurt and grieved at not being able to secure the whole province, they will not take up arms on this point. They will acquiesce in Exclusion being con- fined to the six Plantation counties—Down, Armagh, .Azitrim, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh.
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