TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE AMENDING BILL.
WE do not wonder that Lord Lansdowne expressed deep disappointment with the outline of the Amend- ing Bill given by Lord Crewe us the House of Lords on Tuesday. The reading of the actual Bill, which was published on Wednesday afternoon, can only have increased the disappointment of the Unionist leader. The Bill has not only all the objectionable features of the original proposal of the beginning of March, but the consequential amendments are of the narrowest and most sketchy description, and exactly calculated to make the Ulstermen believe that the Exclusion offered them is of a purely tem- porary character—makeshift arrangements only intended to last during a six years' "respite." The Bill, indeed, is only tolerable if regarded, as we regard it, as a "dummy," with clauses put in merely to occupy space which will be used later for the insertion of proposals which have a reasonable chance of doing the work required of them- i.e., the work of preventing civil war. That is the way in which we are delighted to see Lord Lansdowne is content to regard the Bill. Had he wished to secure a party advantage he might very well have refused to look at a Bill so obviously partisan and unfair as the Amending Bill.
Happily, however, he did nothing of the kind, but, after his first natural expression of indignation at the terms of the measure, accepted the Bill as a dummy Bill which the Opposition were, 111 fact, invited to develop into a measure which would save the country from internecine strife. His speech was as wise as it was cautious, and laid down the true lines on which the Unionists should act. It is a subject for great satisfaction that the Bill is now left in the hands of so sound a statesman and so able a negotiator. He will not yield on essentials, but at the same time he will not attempt to overreach his opponents. He will, we may feel sure, keep his eye on the object, but he will main- tain a true sense of proportion. Last, and beat omen of all, he will keep his temper. He will not sacrifice the cause he has at heart—the avoidance of civil war—to preserve his own amour propre, or to indulge personal likes or dislikes.
Before we proceed further we must point out a danger for the Unionists involved in the onus of drafting the real terms of the Amending Bill which has been so strangely cast upon them. If they yield to the temptation of making the best possible Bill in the abstract sense, they are likely to cut the Home Rule Bill down so much as to lay themselves open to the taunt that they have merely altered it into a measure of glorified local self-government for the South and West of Ireland. Were they to yield to this temptation, the Govern- ment would at once have them at an advantage, and would he able to declare that they must reject the Amending Bill as drawn up by the Lords, since it took away by a side wind all that was given to the South and West by the Home Rule Bill. On the other hand, if the Opposition go too far in the other direction, and interpret too narrowly the principle of Exclusion—the principle that the Home Rule Bill is only to take effect in those parts of Ireland where its passage will not cause civil war—and, again, in the consequential amendments make the very minimum of alteration, there is always the danger of misconstruction on the part of the Ulstermen. They are very naturally in a state of great excitement, and excitement leads to suspicion. Thus some- thing like a wedge might be driven between 'Ulster and the Unionists, and the Ulstermen might be made to think, for the time at any rate, that they were betrayed. To draw an Amending Bill for the Exclusion of the Protestant North, with the consequential amendments, is like walking on a razor-edge in the Alps—a slip on either side may be fatal. That is not, in our opinion, a reason for the Lords refusing to undertake the task of preventing civil war, the task which Lord Lansdowne has accepted with such courage and patriotism, but it is a ground for walking very cautiously, and for adopting that rule of conduct which we ventured to lay down last week. Not a line less and not a line more of amendment must be made than is necessary to secure the object of preventing civil war by the exclusion of those parts of Ireland the inclusion of which would lead to armed rebellion.
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