Mr. Henry Fowler, speaking at Coventry yesterday week, made the
curious assertion that the grant of a separate Irish Parliament would make no difference in the fairness of letting the Irishmen sit in the Parliament at Westminster. This he maintained on the ground that it makes no difference whether Dublin Castle is the delegate of the Parliament at West- minster, as it now is, or whether a separate Irish Parliament is chosen to be that delegate. Parliament, he says, would govern Ireland just as much under Home-rule as it does now ; only, instead of interfering, as it does now, with the policy of the Lord-Lieutenant, it would interfere then with the policy of the Irish Parliament. That seems a very strange and frank admis- sion. For Mr. Henry Fowler does not observe that Dublin Castle cannot resist an order from the British Parliament, while the Irish Parliament could and would resist such orders, and would make of their grievances, if they were overridden, something far more serious than any which the National League discovers now. Further, Mr. Fowler contended that a prosperous Ireland would be far more restive under Mr. Balfour than a suffering Ireland has been, and that a return of commercial activity would render the government of Ire- land as it is, far more, instead of far less, difficult. How does Mr. Fowler prove that P It is quite contrary to all the evidence of actual experience.
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