THE DEBATE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 27, 1 February 1913, Page 5

THE DEBATE.

SPECTATORS OROWD THE GALLERIES.

"COERCION IN ULSTER."

i /Received Jan. 31, 11.45 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 31. During the 'debate >on the motion to reject the' Home Rule Bill, the galleries devoted to visitors at the House of Lords were crowded. Lord Curzon said that the finances would create endless friction. For •every right the Bill effected it perpetrated a score of wrongs. The Government had chosen coercion in Ulster instead id conciliation, ' Lord Halsbury felt humiliated at discussing tihe measure, when everybody knew that the whole thing was a farce. * Lord Lansdowne said that the whole .Scheme was a misfit. What was the Irish opinion upon which the Government laid such stress.? Who comprised tlie Irish party ?-—Lawyers of no particular eminence, ."journalists of no distinction, and farmers who were not authorities on agriculture. The Irish peasant would sooner have a re'duotion in rent than a share of self.government. The colonial analogy was absolutely worthless and inapplic.able. "Gre^t 'Britain could not allow "Ireland to 'break away while she had a battalion, battery, or gunboat left, •and no amendment could • convert the Bill into a measure worthy of the Statute Book.

Viscount Morley closed the > debate. He derided the idea-of a plebiscite-on Rule as impracticable. Nothing •couTd'be worse than an irresponsible power permeating the Irish adminis--tration system. The Government !beIlieved that the Bill, if worked1 in good faith, would strengthen the sense of responsibility, which was the salt of ■freedom.' ,