AN IMPRACTICABLE SUGGESTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 26, 31 January 1913, Page 4

AN IMPRACTICABLE SUGGESTION.

+ Mr Winston Churchill's idea of separate Parliaments for the North, Midland and Southern districts of L<ngland mil no doubt be quoted in support of Earl Grey's proposal, made m tihe debate in the House of ■koraa on the Home Rule Bill, that < the North-east of Ireland should be . Kiven self-gpVernment similar to that 3 enjoyed by the Canadian province of 1 Ontario, and the Nationalists in the s West and South the same rights as 1 the men of Quebec. But the c Canadian parallel will not hold good, 1

for the Catholics of French origin in Quebec are in a far greater majority over the Protestants—the latter a t^ 1*?jnsignificant minority—than are the Ulster Protestants over the Ulster Catholics. As a matter of factUlster to-day returns quite a respectable number of Nationalist Members, tar more than many people who discuss the Home Rule question seem to imagine. There cannot be two (xovernmente in Ireland, one for a small corner of the North and the other for the remainder of the island JUther let the present system continue, or let Ireland have Home Rule as a whole. To cut and carve the island up as proposed by Earl Grey would be as absurd as Mr Winston Uiurchill's idea of separate Parliaments for Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midland Counties. The debate m the Lords is, we read, "lifeless." Everyone knows that the Bill will be rejected by an overwhelming majority, and any lengthy discussion is therefore merely a waste of time.