Sir Charles Duffy urges Lord Carnarvon, in a long letter,
to settle the Home-rule question by giving Ireland the freedom of a Colony. That is just what Lord Randolph Churchill would probably like to do ; but it is hardly possible for Lord Salisbury to adopt such a policy even to gain the bribe which Sir Charles Duffy holds out, of a solid Irish majority for the Conservatives to be returned at the next election. In the first place, if Ireland is to be granted a Colonial Constitution, this solid Irish follow- ing for the Conservatives would disappear as soon as the promise was fulfilled, for Colonies are not represented in the Imperial Parliament. In the next place, if Mr. Parnell and his friends once had command of a Colonial Constitution, the next step would probably be measures rendering either separation or civil war absolutely certain. And in the third place, by adopting such a policy, Lord Salisbury would lose three English supporters for every Irish supporter he might gain.
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