THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13946, 1 January 1906, Page 6

THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

By no stretch of imagination can Homo Rule bo said tooccupy such a place in the Liberal programme of 1906 as it occupied in the Literal programme of 1892. The loading liberals are still Home Rulers. Mr Moiiey declared the other day that he stoid firm in the conviction that Ireland should have a legislature of her own, and Mr Bryce, who is the new Seeretiry for Ireland, is a staunch supporter of the Gladstonian policy. But Mr Morley also said that no Liberal Ministry could agree to make a Hone Rule Bill its first measure. The presence in the Ministry of Sir Edwaid Grey and Mr H. H. Asquith, both Lllowers of Lord Rosebery, shows that tome compromise has been arrived at ii regard to Ireland by the Liberal leaders, under which Home Rule mist give way to

'urgent domestic reforms—education, licensing, housing, and the rest—in the party programme. Lord Rosebery, of course, has wiped Home Rule off hia slate, and his attitude towards Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman on the question has been frankly critical. Bat his criticism is not of a kind with Mr Balfour’s. Lord Rosebery admits that there' are .two courses open to Home Rulers by conviction; either to make Home Rule the main issue of the election, or to declare openly that, though it is still a plahk in the Liberal platform, it must wait its turn, and must not be allowed to block the way of other reforms. It suits Mr Balfour, as we see from the speech reported in our cable messages this morning, to speak of'Home. Rule as the first item of the Liberal policy. The country must decide, he says, between Homo Rule and fiscal reform, an obvious attempt to harden the free-fcoder Unionists against the Liberals. The position, of course, is that Home Rule in the Gladstonian Sense has no chance of being carried in the House of Lords as that body is at present constituted, and it would be a waste of time for the Liberals to introduce Mr Glad--stone’s Bill again. The Premier, with the knowledge that if the Unionists are defeated it will bo almost certainly with Irish help, is not anxious to estrange the Nationalists, and Homo Rule is therefore an extremely delicate subject to handle before the elections. Mr Redmond has declared that the extension of local government will not satisfy the Irishmen, but it is along that line that relief will ultimately be granted to Ireland. Probably if the Liberals a‘ro successful at the polls they will contihue the policy initiated by Sir Antony Mac Donnell, the policy which Mr Balfour abandoned when ho sacrificed ;Mr Wyndham at the demand of the Ulster Unionists. The Liberals have been ten years in opposition, and they cannot 'afford to propose experimental legislation or great constitutional changes until they have proved their strength. If Home Rule is made a principal issue of the coming elections, therefore, it will bo rather through Unionist opposition than through Liberal advocacy.