Mr. Isaac Butt apparently aspires to fill the place of
Daniel O'Connell. He delivered a speech at Limerick, on Thursday week, in which he demanded something which he said was not Repeal, but which is difficult to distinguish from it. His project involves at all events "home rule" for Irish affairs, and we do- not see that his readiness to send Irish Members to a Federal Parliament is very much of a concession. If the Federal Par- liament ordered things the Irish Parliament did not like, the lrish. Parliament would not obey, and the Empire would be as numb, divided as it would be by Repeal, nay, more, for an independent Irish Parliament would be far less tenacious of its dignity than a Parliament with limited powers. Mr. Butt, to judge from brief reports of his speeches, carefully abstained from defining the
which he would reserve to the Dublin Parliament, but the power of taxation is undoubtedly one, and how that is to be- worked without legislative independence we entirely fail to per- ceive. "Liberty as in Australia" is the most moderate definition of the aspirations entertained by the party of Home Rule.
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