The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1908. HOME RULE PROSPECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 79, 1 April 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1908. HOME RULE PROSPECTS.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in tlie distance, And the good that vie can do.

Monday's Home Rule debate in the ■House of Commons, as reported in our cable columns to-day, marks a distinct epoch in Irish political history. Never before have the opposing issues been more clearly set forth, and never before have the principles of Home Rule on the one hand, and Imperialism on the other, been more emphatically affirmed. The first point to be observed is the attempt made by the Conservative wing of the Unionist party to commit the House to _ resolution to the effect that Parliament is "unalterably opposed to the creation of an. Irish Parliament with a responsible executive." After a long and often acrimonious controversy this amendment was rejected by a majority of nearly 200 votes. This is in itself a sufficiently decisive verdict; and we doubt if even the most enthusiastic advocates of Home Rule would have expected so strong a. vote in their favour from a House of Commons constituted as it is to-day.

But even the rejection of Earl Percy's amendment is perhaps less significant than the acceptance of the motion originally proposed by Mr. Re_hio__ __ii subsequently modified into a form better adapted to the sensibilities of the Liberal Unionists. The Nationalist leader, with bis usual courage, had boldly challenged Government and Oppositionists to a definite expression of opinion on his resolution that the present system of Government in Ireland is " inefficient, extravagant, costly, and productive of universal discontent and unrest"; and Mr. Redmond's speech, showed that the "adoption of this resolution was intended to commit the House to a vote in favour of conceding to the Irish " legislative and executive control of all purely Irish affairs." So clear a declaration for legislative Home Rule would hardly have carried the House with it if it. had not been conditioned by some proviso for the maintenance of the Imperial over the Nationalist Parliament. But happily for the prospects of Home Rule, Mr. Redmond displayed laudable tact and discretion in accepting a Liberal amendment to this effect; and the demand for an Irish National Parliament, over which the Imperial Parliament would retain supreme, authority, rvas duly endorsed by the House of Commons by 315 votes to 157

—a majority of 158.

Two important questions are practically settled by these divisions. It is now clear that a large majority of the House of Cojrunons is in favour of Home Rule 60 long as it does no#. entail absorot©

legislative independence- for Ireland with all its possibilities of danger. But it is also this is an even more irnportaht "fact-—that the Nationalists are to accept Home "itnle so long as it is legislative as well as administrative, even if the new Parliament at Dublin is in the last j-esort still subject to the will of the Parliament at Westminster. It is true that the accredited leaders of the Nationalist party fiave always, insistedi that Home Rule does not • necessarily imply any sacrifice of Imperial interests or any attempt to dissolve the Union in the broader sense of the term. But in view of the violent excesses which have marked the j controversy on both sides, it is a greatpoint gained that Nationalists and Liberals have practically agreed that Home Rule is a possibility which does not involve any risk to the integrity of the' Empire. The necessity for the maintenance of Imperial unity was strongly insisted upon by Mr. Balfo'fir, Earl Percy 'and other Unionist speakers during the debate, and Mr. Redmond's adoption of j the clause asserting the paramount authority of the Imperial Parliament,, while it satisfied Mr. Asquith and.several of his I colleagues, cut the ground from under the feet of the Unionist Opposition.

"With this clear and forcible assertion of Irish rights and claims, we may-regard the case for Home Rule as adjourned till after the next general election. For, as Mr. Asquith said on Monday," the House of Commons as now composed cannot go further than the point markeu by Mr. Birrell's unsatisfactory bill. Mr. Redmond no less clearly explained that the acceptance of his resolution would facilitate matters at the next general election, for those Liberals who felt themselves still bound by the promises made to the nation by their leaders during the last campaign. As a matter of fact the Liberal party went into office definitely pledged not to concede fulllegislative independence to Ireland. Administrative self-government they were fully prepared to grant; and Mr. Birrell's bill, though it failed to please either Unionists, Liberals, or Nationalists, probably went quite as far as the popular mandate could have carried Sir Henry Campbell-Baunerman and his colleagues. Our readers will remember that Mr. Redmond was at first prepared to accept Mr. Birrell's offer of local autonomy for Ireland; but the Nationalists as a body refused to be content with half measures and demanded legislative independence as well. For this, as even ■Mr. Redmond admits, they must wait till the Liberals have once more appealed to the constituencies and made Home Rule an unconditional issue-at the polls. But the outcome of this last debate certainly encourages the hope that the next Parliament will find a way to solve the problem *hat has .so long paralyzed the energies of the HousS'of Commons, and ■ has entailed centuries of anarchy, desolation, and misery on Ireland.