Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MARCH 22nd, 1911. IRISH HOME RULE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1911, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, MARCH 22nd, 1911. IRISH HOME RULE.

Double the Circulation of any other newspaper published in the district.

Mr. John Redmond, the politician who dominates the political situation in the United Kingdom at the present time, contributes to Nash’s Magazine an article in which he gives a masterly statement of the case in favor of Home Rule for Ireland. In two sentences, he places the Nationalist demand in a nutshell. “What Ireland wants,” he remarks, “is the restoration of responsible government, neither more nor less. The Irish demand is, in plain and popular, language, that the government of every purely Irish affair shall be controlled by the public opinion of Ireland, and by that alone.To this very equitable demand, (he Nationalist loader adds that his party does not seek any alteration of the Constitution or supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. They ask merely to bo permitted to take their place in the ranks of those other portions of the British Em-pire—-some twenty-eight in number—which, in their own purely local affairs, are governed by free representative institutions of their own. ’This moderale, even modest, demand has iis root alike in historic title and in the utter and disastrous failure of the attempt since 1800 to govern Irish affairs

by a British majority at,Westminster; We are then reminded of the fact that' the Irish Parliament was almost coeval j tvith, and absolutely ,co-ordinate with, the Parliament of England. The first Irish Parliament of which we have any! authentic records sat in 1295, and from 1295 until 1495 that Parliament ■ was! absolutely supreme, and this condition; remained unbroken and unquestioned until the reign of George 1., and then, ah 1719, an English Act was passed Which enacted that the English Parliament had the power to make laws for Ireland. That Act was always re-

sisted, and Ireland never for one hour ceased to protest against it, until at' last, in 1782, the freedom of the Irish j Parliament Was obtained by the great, 1 measure Which Grattan, backed by the 1 Irish Volunteers, passed into law. The Act of George I. was repealed, and the English Act of the 23rd of George 111., I Chapter 28, solemnly declared that the' right claimed by the people of Ireland 1 to bo- bound only liy laws enacted by His Majesty and the Parliament of Ire-, land in all Cases whatsoever, shall ar no time hereafter be questioned. Eighteen years after that solemn declaration it was disregarded, and the Irish Parliament, Which lasted for five hundred years, was destroyed by the Act of Union. Lord Grey, speaking after the Union in England, pointed out that there were 300 members in the j Irish Parliament. Of that number. 120 strongly opposed the Union and' 162 voted in fa vour of it 5 and of those 162, 116 were placemen in the pay of the English Government, From that day to this Ireland has never ceased to 1 protest against the usurpation of the Government of Ireland by the English Parliament. She had never ceased to protest according to the circumstances

and the opportunities of the moment. 1 Mr. Redmond emphasises Ireland’s 1 protest, when he writes: “She has protested by armed insurrection. She has protested by never-ending agitation- She has protested by her representatives in the British Parliament. And her protest was never louder than to-day.” This statement is, of’ course, perfectly true. At this juncture it is interesting to recall the demand of the Home Rule Conference which in 1875, under the presidency of Isaac Butt, formulated their demand in the following resolutions : (1). “That, to sedure to the Irish people the advantages of constitutional government, it is essential that there I should be in Ireßmd an administration ! for Irish affairs, controlled, according I to constitutional principles; by the Irish Parliament, and conducted by ministers constitutionally responsible to that Parliament. A Federal arrangement, based upon these principles, would consolidate the strength and maintain the integrity of the Empire, and add to the dignity and power of the Imperial Crown.” 2. “That, while we believe that in an Irish Parliament the rights and liberties of all classes of our countrymen would find their best and surest protection, \wc are willing that there should be incorporated in the Federal Constitution articles supplying the amplest guarantees that no change should be made by that Parliament in the present settlement of property in Ireland, and that no legislation should be adopted to establish any religious ascendancy in

Ireland, or to subject any person to disabilities on account of his religious opinions.” In 1866 Parnell, speaking for Ireland, explicitly accepted the offer of a subordinate Parliament. The Imperial Parliament, in which Ireland would probably continue to be represented, but in smaller numbers, would j retain the management just as at pre- ! sent of all Imperial affairs —army, navy, foreign relations, customs, Imperial taxation, matters pertaining to the Crown, the colonies, and all those other questions which are Imperial and not local in their nature, the Imperial Parliament also retaining an over-rid-ing supreme authority over the new Irish legislature, such as it possesses to-day over the various legislatures in Canada, Australia, South Africa, and other portions of the Empire. That demand revibrates through the political situation to-day, and, as Home Rule is within measureable distance of attainment, it is not altogether a flight of imagination to regard the present as the dawning of a new era for Ireland. Under the circumstances, Mr Redmond is justifiably optimistic. “As happened when Lord Durham’s policy was carried out in Canada,” he remarks in conclusion, “men of different races and creeds will join hands to promote the well-being of their common country (Ireland). Responsibility, thrown for the first time for over a century upon the people, will have the, same effect in Ireland as elsewhere. Trust in the people will effect as startling and dramatic a transformation of feeling and sentiment in li-eland as in South Africa.” May the outcome be as satisfactory as the confidently worded sentence prophesies.