On Wednesday Sir Robert Finlay was the chief speaker for
the Opposition. He warned the Government of the con- Enquences of establishing a separate Parliament in Ireland. " If you go on with this Bill it means civil war." They had approached the very edge of the abyss, and he adjured them not to dash themselves into it. Did they really mean to use the forces of the Crown against the men of Ulster ? If the demand of those men to be governed under laws made by the Imperial Parliament were disregarded, they would have more justification for resistance than the American Colonies when they threw off their allegiance. If we were to have federalism, the case for the separate treatment of Ulster was irresistible. Colonel Seely's reply was ingenious but uncon- vincing. He admitted that a hostile Ireland might be a very real danger, but he believed that, if the policy on which the Bill was based were honourably carried out, there would be no hostility. After praising the military services of Irishmen, he expressed the opinion that they would be likely to enlist in !I, great numbers after the Home Rule Bill had been passed, and that in this way the safety of the Empire would be „, increased. It is hardly necessary to add that Colonel Seely brought in the Transvaal and the effect of Home Rule there. All Government speakers do that, in spite of the fact that the argument is utterly irrelevant and the analogy false.
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