THE HOME RULE SCHEME.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " spEcTATor....]
Slit,—I read the " Appeal to Unionists " in the Spectator of July 15th, and have delayed writing expecting some further advice in the paper of the 22nd. It seems to me that the Appeal is a laborious attempt to prove that in the matter of Home Rule it is right, or at any rate expedient, to do evil that good may come. I believe, on the contrary, that the rule should always be Pais ce que dois, adrienne que pourra. I believe the whole thing is founded on a fraud—viz., that Home Rule is an " Imperial necessity." I think the scheme must fizzle out because (1) it is all wrong, (2) it is unworkable, (3) the Nationalists will rAject it. In the Appeal you say " a new departure had to be taken," &c. All that was necessary was that the country should be reasonably governed. No country could prosper under such feeble and dishonest rule as that of Mr. Birrell. You talk of Home Rule being an " experiment " and the probability of a second Irish revolt. As one of those who would probably be shot, although I have always been considered a good landlord and I believe am personally popular, I contend that to approve of any scheme likely to bring about a second revolt is outrageous. It is said that the authorities have in their possession a list of those men who were to be murdered by the Sinn Feiners, and that all who worked at recruiting am specially noted. I have taken a prominent part in recruiting and all my sons are soldiers. We got off comparatively well in the last rising. If the arms had been landed, there might have been much bloodshed in the South. Looking at the question from your point of view, I can quite see that it does not much matter whether I am murdered or not ; but looking at it as an English subject, I can say that to hand over the country to its worst enemies would be lunacy. Imperial considerations must render necessary measures of precaution, termed by the Nationalists " coercion," that will make the Homo Rule
scheme unacceptable.—I am, Sir, &c., M. A.
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