HOW ULSTER CAN DEFEAT HOME RULE. B EFORE we leave the
subject of Home Rule we desire to record with great satisfaction a speech made by Sir John Lonsdale, M.P., Honorary Secretary of the Irish Unionist Party. Speaking at Heady, County Armagh, on Saturday last, he declared that
"The demand which they put forward was simply that they should be allowed to retain their citizenship in the United Kingdom and remain under the protection of the Imperial Parliament. They were firmly resolved to resist every attempt to force them to surrender that right, and if they succeeded in their endeavours the whole policy of Home Rule must crumble to the ground. That was their object, and it would be seen, therefore, that the interests of loyalists in all parts of Ireland were bound up with the decision which the Unionists of Ulster had come to after the fullest deliberation and with a thorough appreciation of the responsibility they were incurring."
If, as we have so often urged in these columns, this de- mand is persisted in by the loyal men of Ulster, we are certain that they will be able to defeat Home Rule. Ulster is (rite right not to ask for a separate Ulster Parliament, or indeed to ask for any form of separate treatment on its merits. They do not want to break up the legisla- tive union in any shape or form. In order, however, to put themselves right with the people of Great Britain, the attitude which they ought to adopt is that outlined in the words we have quoted. They must say in effect: "You have no right to force those counties and cities of Ulster which loathe Home Rule under a Dublin Parliament. All the arguments which you use in favour of Home Rule prove that you have no such right. Though you may insist upon the establishment of a Parliament at Dublin and on letting the people of the South leave the legislative union, you cannot force us under that Parliament or turn us out of the Union when our demand is the other way."
If this demand is pressed in season' and out of season upon the Government during the passage and also before the passage of the Home Rule Bill in the specific form of a. demand that any Irish county may require a poll of its electors as to whether they shall or shall not be placed under the Dublin Parliament instead of the Parliament at Westminster, one of two things must happen. Either the Government must yield, in which case the Home Rule Bill will be killed—Mr. Redmond and his friends could never accept it with the contracting-out clause we have described—or the Government must refuse to pass that clause, and must in effect say to the people of Ulster : " That inherent right to local autonomy which we have declared belongs to the people of the South of Ireland does not apply to persons like you—mere Protestants and Teutons. We mean, whatever you say, to force you under the Dublin Parliament." In that case the moral right of Ulster to resort to passive resistance will be enormously strengthened. If a clause allowing the counties which wish to remain under the Parliament at Westminster to do so is rejected, the Ulster people, when it comes to resisting the Dublin Parliament, will be able to say to the British people : " We warned you what would happen. We gave you the opportunity of avoiding civil war, and you would not take it. Therefore the blood-guiltiness will be upon you and not upon us." Does any sane man believe that if the anti-Home Rule counties of Ulster ask to be left out of the Bill and their prayer is rejected the British people will order them to be shot down in order that the behests of a Dublin Parliament may be carried out ? If only the Ulster people take the course we have sug- gested they can defeat Home Rule and at the same time do what we feel sure they are quite as anxious to do as to pro- tect themselves—secure the minority throughout Ireland from the evils of the destruction of the legislative union. If, however, on a mere punctilio they miss the opportunity of proposing that any county which likes may refuse to go under the Dublin Parliament, and resist the Dublin Parliament without having, as it were, made this offer to the British people, their attitude will be in great danger of being misjudged, and the arguments of those who say that Acts of Parliament when once passed must be carried out will be strongly endorsed. Nothing will bring home to the British people more clearly the danger of applying the Home Rule Bill to Ulster against its will than the inclusion of a definite proposal, such as we have named, among the amendments proposed in Committee on the Home Rule Bill. We would indeed fight this matter at every stage. When next January the King's Speech outlines the Home Rule Bill we should like to see Mr. Balfour move an amendment to the Address, not only condemning Home Rule altogether, but especially declaring that it must lead to civil war unless any county which so desires is allowed to say that it will remain under the Parliament at Westminster and not pass under the Parliament at Dublin. The amendment to the Address might run : " That the attempt to establish a Parliament in Dublin, with jurisdiction over the whole province of Ulster, will involve the risk of civil war, and that therefore any Bill which establishes an Irish Legis- lature must in justice be so framed that any Irish county may demand a poll of the electors to decide whether that county shall or shall not come under the aforesaid legisla- ture." That proposal should also be pressed at every possible opportunity in Committee and during the Report stage. At the same time throughout England and Scotland the strongest efforts should be made to make the electors understand what will happen if they refuse to provide a. safety valve. It is idle to say that by proposing to add a safety valve to a badly constructed engine one is admitting that the engine ought to be made. One is admitting nothing of the sort. It is perfectly sound reasoning to say : " If you must have a, thoroughly bad Bill, at any rate make provision that when it is put into operation it will do the minimum and not the maximum amount of mischief."
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