REDISTRIBUTION BEFORE THE HOME RULE ELECTION.
[To TRY EDITOR 07 TIER "SPRCTATOR.n
Sin,—There must he few Unionists who will not thank you for your article dealing with " The proper way to coerce Ulster" and your conclusion that the only possible way is by means of a general election, held before the Home Rule Bill is presented to the House of Commons for the third time. It is probably becoming obvious even to the Coalition that as yet they have no mandate from the people of these islands to shoot down Ulstermen for their loyalty to the Union Jack.
But will you allow me to submit, Sir, that a general election merely by itself will not be sufficient, since under the conditions that prevail at present England would be taking part in it with the scales far too heavily weighted against her ? If any decision by the House of Commons on the Home Rule question is to have the slightest moral weight, this general election must be preceded by a redistribution of seats which will give equality in the division lobby to the four component parts of the United Kingdom. It is incontestable that England is as vitally interested in the question of Home Rule as is Ireland, and yet at the present moment, and until a Redistribution takes place, the vote of an Irishman counts almost exactly twice that of an Englishman (see Parliamentary Return, No. 478, 1913). In other words, to force Home Rule through the House of Commons against the wishes of the electorate, Ireland has the use of thirty-eight votes in the lobby which on a population basis should be at the disposal of England, the predominant partner—the country, it may be added, that has invariably pronounced (when she has been given the chance) strongly in favour of the union of these Isles. Were these seats transferred, as under a fair redistribution they would be, to England, it is probable that on this issue they would be worth seventy-six votes on a division. Is it conceivable, therefore, that the Unionist Party will look upon any decision as final while the dice are so heavily loaded against the predominant partner, or will cease to give their support to any resistance that Ulster may see fit to make until England is put on an equality in the voting lobby with the other portions of the British Isles ? The truth is that, by making use of a privileged position enjoyed to the same extent by none other of his Majesty's subjects, the Nationalist members have been able to force the question of Home Rule—as to the genuine demand for which there seems to be some legitimate doubt—quite out of all Parlia.- liamentary perspective, and I believe that once this aspect becomes more widely appreciated the whole unstable structure of the Coalition, resting as it does merely on Irish over- representation, will come toppling over. An energetic campaign in the country in favour of "fairplay for England" might be followed by some very fruitful results.—I am, Sir,
&c., CLIVE MORRISON-BELL. House of Commons.'
[We are entirely at one with Major Morrison-Bell. In bare justice to England redistribution should take place before the next appeal to the constituencies. We fear, however, that it would he utterly useless to ask the Government to bring this about. They might profess to consider redistribution in order to delay a dissolution, but they will never carry it. Their Nationalist masters would not allow it. The subject is one to which we shall return before long, but we will say at once that our leaders should on all convenient occasions make it clear that, if returned to power, they will not dissolve before they have done electoral justice to England.—En. Spectator.]
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