Mr. Asquith said that the Home Rule Act could never
be taken off the statute-book. Upon this Mr. Boner Law made the just comment that, so far as he was able to prevent it, the Home Rule Act should never come into operation until it had been amended in accordance with Ulster's wishes. Mr. Bonar Law reproved Lord Hugh Cecil for his angry attack on Sir Edward Carson, and for his contemptuous disregard of sentiment in politics—especially in Ireland, where sentiment counts for so much. But the Unionist leader declined to accept the Nationalists' demand that they should remain, eighty-four strong, at Westminster, even if they received Home Rule now. The times were too critical to allow a party which solely concerned itself with Irish interests to determine the balance of power in the House of Commons when the greatest Imperial problems might have to be solved.
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