The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1913. THE HOME RULE BILL

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1913, Page 4

The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1913. THE HOME RULE BILL

The cabled extracts from speeches delivered upon Home Rule in the House of Commons are reminders that the authority of the House of Lords is not what it used to be, and that the ultimate passage of this measure is practically assured —unless two things happen. These are that before next year the Government shall have been defeated in the House, and that a general election places the Conservatives in power. Last year after the Home Rule Bill had been passed by the Lower House, the Lords, after a rather spiritless debate, threw the measure out. But it will have been remembered that in the previous yimr the Lords, being convinced of the hostility of the country towards them— consequent upon their unwise, reckless tactics when confronted by the now historic budget of 1909—had assented to passage of the Parliament Amendment Act, and it is this measure which accounts for the reappearance now of the Home Rule Bill. The vital clause of that Act provides that if any public Bill (other than a Money Bill or a Bill containing any provision to* extend the maximum duration of Parliament beyond five years) is passed by the House of Commons in three successive sessions (whether of the same Parliament or not), and, having been sent up to the House of Lords at least one month J before the end of the session, is re-

jeeted by the House of Lords in each of those sessions, that Bill shall, on its rejection for the third time by the House of Lords, unless the House of Commons direct to the contrary, be presented to his Majesty and become i an Act of Parliament on the Royal Absent being signified thereto, notwithstanding that the House of Lords have not consented to the Bill: Provided that this provision shall not have effect unless two years have elapsed between the date -of the second reading in the first of those sessions of the Bill in the House of Commons, and the date on which it passes the House of Commons in the third of those sessions. It will thus be seen that what is now going on amounts to a legislative marking of time in order to determine if Parliament has sufficient stability to last its nominal life-time. The debate on the Bill must necessarily be more or less unreal, and the probabilities are that both sides would be genuinely relieved if it were out of the, way. The Lords will in all probability toss the measure back to the House again. It will then remain hidden away until next year, and then the only thing standing between the Bill and a place on the Statute Book will be the formality of adoption by the House of Commons. The subsequent attitude of the Lords will afterwards be of no importance, for whether they pass it or not it must become law by virtue of automatic process. The fate of the Bill is really bound up in the fate of the Liberal party. If the Government can survive the assaults of the opposition for another year Home Rule» must become a fact. Apart altogether from the merits of the question at issue, and disregarding for the moment the arguments for and against, there seems in this new system of "suspended* animation " in the constitution more than one objectionable feature Whether Home Rule is good or bad in theory it certainly is not desirable that ferment should be sustained from year to

year among the Irish people. What the country requires more than anything else is peace, but to keep a mersure so far-reaching in character as the Home Rule Bill hung up by a thread from year to year is merely provocative of ill-will and discord. We see the proof of this in Ulster, where the conditions are now such as to suggest that if Ireland is going to have Home Rule, the sooner this is conferred the better in order thati a very deplorable state of affairs may be either ended or mended. The suspensory powers left to the Lords are in this case, at all events, not making for the extension of good-will nor creating an atmosphere of calmness. On the contrary, the effects are entirely in the opposite direction.