We have dealt in another column with the formal enuncia-
tion of their views on the Education question put forward by the Irish Bishops a week ago. We will only note here that a section of the Opposition Press, a props of the probability that the Government will meet the Catholic Church in Ireland in a sympathetic and generous spirit, are declaring that the Unionists are proposing to substitute " Rome-rule " for "Home-rule." A more disingenuous statement than this alleged contrast cannot well be imagined. "Home-rule," though not in name, would in fact have done infinitely more in the direction of " Rome-rule " than could the contem- plated concession. It would have placed the whole power of legislation on domestic subjects, and the whole power of local taxation and administration, in the hands of a Parliament in which the Irish Catholics would have been supreme. This is clearly a much more serious danger to Protestants than to endow the Irish Catholics with money enough to conduct education on their own lines,—subject always to the direct control of the Imperial Parliament. It is one of the advantages of the Union over Home-rule, that under the Union experiments may be tried with safety which would be the cause of infinite mischief under local autonomy. The Irish Protestants will not seriously fear concessions to the Catholic hierarchy on the Education question, because they will know that they have the guarantee of a direct and real Imperial control. Under Home-rule a scheme of Catholic endowment would have sent them into a panic which might have done irreparable harm.
Previous page
