Mr. Rainy having seconded the Resolution, Lord Percy moved the
official Opposition amendment declaring that "this House is unalterably opposed to the creation of an Irish Parliament with a responsible Executive." It was scandalously inaccurate to say that the existing system did not enjoy the confidence of any section of the Irish people when a quarter of the population, comprising the most wealthy, were not only content with it, but resolutely opposed to the solution desired by Mr. Redmond. His claim was based on nationality, but never in the history of the Empire had self-government been granted in response to that claim. If nationality was a good argument for Home-rule, it was a good argument for separation. Mr. Birrell taunted Lord Percy with regarding the Union as a fact of Nature, and with forgetting that it was engendered in corruption a hundred years ago. Sooner or later, by one party or another, very substantial alterations would be made in our relations with Ireland, and it was his firm conviction that the affairs of Ireland required the exclusive attention of an Irish Parlia- ment. Though the Liberal Party were a Home-rule Party, it did not follow that after the next General Election Home-rule would be thrust to the front. No one could foretell what questions the predominant partner would then wish to be brought forward. But if the Nationalists wanted Home-rule to be the main issue, they would do well to state clearly what they would accept, and what their views were on such points as the protection of the minority.
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