Lord Waterford, in a speech in Berwickshire, on Thursday, pressed
home one danger from Home-rule which has been very little discussed. . He thought any Home-rule Governs ment would stop recruiting in Ireland, and thus deprive the Empire of one of its best supplies of soldiers. Without free recruiting, he added, we must resort to conscription, and thus the Home-rule Bill might affect the liberty of every English household. That is an exaggeration, as money would bring all the soldiers we want; but it is quite probable that a failure in Irish recruiting might cost us another million in wages, and lead to incessant friction between the two Governments. The abstract right to recruit belongs, of course, to the. Sovereignty, and could not be interfered with ; but an Irish Government could soon make the sergeants' work impossible. It could, for example, compel the 'presence of all young men in their own parishes once a year to be registered and examined as supplementary police.
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