HOME RULE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1393, 20 March 1912, Page 4

HOME RULE.

Those who, with the objcct of discovering the exact intentions of the imperial Government with re,card to Home Rule, studied the Lclfn.st =peech of Mr. Winston Churciullfull reports of which are now beiore us—must have come to the conclusion that the only thing certain was just what Me. Churchill did not state. He was finely rhetorical, but so exceedingly vague that it was evident the Cabinet had not yet made up its mind on several important-aspects of the question. A Home Rule Bill is promised, but how all the difficult problems connoted in that term are to be solved nobody knows. All that can be done at present is to obtain whatever light is available upon the several alternative solutions. In this endeavour such a survey of _ Me. Gladstone's two Home Rule Bills as was lately given by the London Times is of value. Each of those Bills was a serious attempt to set up a Parliament for Ireland, and each contained provisions which would now be condemned by both parties. On the vexed question ot Iviali representation at Westminster Mr. Gladstone said, in 1880: "It is perfectly clear that if. Ireland is to have a domestic Legislature, Irish peers and Irish legislators cannot come here and control English and Scotch affairs." Accordingly his Home Rule Bill of that year provided for the total exclusion of Irish members from the Imperial ParliaI ment, except for the specific purpose of a revision of the proposed new Irish Constitution. This, according to some, was what killed the Bill. It seamed to make the separation of the two countries too complete, and it would also have deprived the Irish of all share in the control of the defence system, fiscal policy, and other matters which were reserved for the Imperial Parliament. Moreover, since the Irish Government was to make a net contribution of £1,850,000 to the Imperial Exchequer, there would have been taxation without representation. Mr. Gladstone's second Bill, which he introduced in 1893, proposed quite a different system. There wore to be eighty Irish members in the House of Commons, but an in-and-out clause, as it came to be called, was devised for the purpose of excluding from their activities all purely English or Scotch affairs. It was seen, however, that this scheme would expose an Imperial Government, _ which must also be the local executive for England and Scotland, to the risk of being unseated by Irish votes; and, as the Times says, "the plan of making the Imperial Parliament at onco the supreme and a subordinate Legislature in a federal system proved so ludicrous, when examined, that it was abandoned in Committee amid general laughter. The eighty Irish members were retained for all purposes, in spite of the paradoxes and anomalies which this course involved." Nevertheless, it now appears from Mr. Churchill's speech that the in-and-out arrangement will again be proposed in connection with a reduced Irish representation at Westminster. _

Tho fiscal issue was treated by Mr. Churchill at Belfast at some length, but with tantalising vagueness. He said that the system and character of Irish finance would be consistent with the fundamental conception of a United Kingdom and ultimately of a federated Empire: that "the Irish Parliament would have a real grip of finance and control large areas of taxation; and that it. would have power within reasonable and wise limits to supplement its income by new taxation." This would seem to mean that Customs and Excise will remain under the control o£ the Imperial Parliament, though when it is remembered that these Departments represent, about three-fourths of the • present Irish revenue, it appears that "real grip" and "large areas of taxation" were phrases especially intended for Irish consumption. Unionists have been saying 11ml a Hume Utile Bill which does net confer upon nn Trisli Parliament full power to levy and collect its own revenue will he rejected bv 1 Ik; Convention in Dublin to wliieli'it is understood I lie measure will bo submitted. The Liberals on [tUcir tart rely.-on the assurances of

Mr. Redmond and Mr. O'Brien that they will accept the Bill, if it is satisfactory in other respects, alt.lto'.u'h I'mlnms and Excise arc roserved for lie' Imi j rii> 1 I'arli.-vTifkt!. i In on- very iir.porlniiL respect fin: j uew 11 omo liule Hill v:ill certainly I difer from either uf ils predecessors. | l-ntlcr the Bill of IHHB or 1 hut of I*):; Ireland would have paid large sum:; annually to the Imperial Exchequer, as her share of the joint liabilities for defence, the Civil List, and so forth, but. since those times tie position has changed, and it is now certain that Ireland will receive a heavy Imperial subsidy. 'llie sum of £2,000,000 a year has been mentioned, and Mit. 'Cuniniiu, said that Recording to the calculations of the Government, Groat Britain was at this moment; virtually subsidising! Ireland to that amount, and the sum would soon be exceeded by (lie mere maturing of existing legislative obligations. All he said as to the, Government's intentions under this lie,'id was that Ireland would lie given "a fair start," that, tho financial proposals of the Bill would involve no set-back to Irish prosperity, and that land purchase, and old age pensions would be dealt with as at present by the Imperial authorities. Mi!. Asquith and his colleagues, in their endeavour to pay their political debt to Jin. Redmond, have to grapple with problems which probably admit of no consistent and logical solution apart from the complete federalization of the United Kingdom, and it is doubtful whether the rather languid movement towards that goal will lie materially hastened toineet the demands of the Irish Nationalists.