Mr. Chamberlain on the same day delivered a long and
able speech at Hawick, expounding his ideas on Home-rule and agrarian reform in Ireland. We have criticised the speech sufficiently elsewhere, but may mention here that the speaker adhered to his old view that a basis of reconciliation among Liberals might be found in the Canadian Constitution, the principle of which is that the subordinate Legislatures exercise only delegated powers, and may be in part overridden by the -central Parliament. Fancy the British Parliament, with one hundred Irish Members in it, debating a Bill to override a Land Law passed in Dublin! Mr. Chamberlain, however, holds his view strongly, for he repeated it in still more detail in a letter to the Times published on Wednesday. He spoke at great length on the agrarian question, on which his ends are entirely sound ; but he gave no hint of his scheme, which appears to include many incompatible good things. He wishes to buy out the land- lords without robbery, yet to leave with them all risk, and not -impose it on the taxpayer ; and he wishes holdings, when too small to afford a livelihood, to be thrown together. At the same time, he will not pledge the credit of Great Britain for the sake of Irish landlords. How, then, does he propose to act ? Merely to grant perpetual tenancy at a low rent, without com- pensating or guaranteeing the landlord, would be confiscation ; .and, in the case of estates bought under the Encumbered Estates Act, confiscation in the teeth of a direct promise as binding as the promise to pay interest on Consols.
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