Mr. Courtney's speeeh in proposing the rejection of the Bill,
was very vigorous. He pointed out that since the country had been kept so sedulously in the dark as to the. provisions of the Home-rule Bill,—in spite of the powerful' remonstrances even of Home-rulers like Mr. Asquith before he. became Home Secretary,—it became the positive duty of the Opposition to hammer the objectionable features of the Bill into the minds of the electorate, by way of preparing it to. give an intelligent vote on the most important constitutional' revolution which has ever been submitted to them, and one which the Government seek to disguise by enveloping it in the tortuous folds of the Newcastle programme. "If they realised what was meant by this Home-rule Bill, they would see that what was called ' liberty ' was the domina- tion of a class ; that what was called 'peace' was warfare; that what was called 'order' was the breaking out of dis- cord; that instead of the unity of the nation being established,, social and international bonds were being torn asunder."
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