The Committee stage of the Home Rule Bill was resumed
on Wednesday in a very thin House. The absence of most of the Independent Liberals and the Labour Party coincided with, but may or may not have been duo to, the fact that it was Derby Day. Some English Unionists and the Ulster members made a spirited but vain attempt to convert the Bill into a true instalment of federalism by giving the Irish Parliaments specified powers and reserving all the rest to Imperial Parliament. The Government, however, declined to yield. They had indeed to resist a most dangerous proposal of the opposite kind, namely, that the Irish Parliaments should be entrusted with the control of the forces of the Crown. Captain Coote and Captain Elliot, who thus proposed to split up the British Navy and Arrive admitted that the risks would be great, but they failed to sl ow why we should commit an act of such monstrous folly as to assist Shin Fein in waging war against us. We should prefer to think that the two members were speaking ironically, though Ireland nowadays is no subject for jesting.
