Mr. Courtney made a striking speech to his constituents at
Looe on Tuesday, on the subject of Irish Home-rule, the sub- stance of which we have summarisedin another column ; but we may add here that he illustrated most effectively the diffi- culty of the Federal system, which it is now all but certain that the next proposal for Irish Home-rule must introduce, by reminding his audience that it had been tried in New Zealand, and that the Provincial Legislatures there made such demands for help on the Central Legislature, that the system was found quite impracticable, so that the local Parliaments were eventually suppressed (in 1875), after some twenty-three years' trial. In Canada, too, as Mr. Courtney pointed out, the great difficulty is still "the apportionment of revenue amongst the Canadian provinces," which is becoming the political poison of Canadian life. "It was, in fact, leading the Govern- ment of the country into a great system of mismanagement by means of corruption and bribery." We believe that if Ireland ever obtained Home-rule, one of the worst results which would flow from it would be the temptation of British Governments to
shut the mouths of Irish politicians by holding out to them the bribe of lowering their contribution to the Central Government, or of increasing their share of any source of revenue common to the two islands.
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