HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

THE RESULTS OF SEPARATION. The strongest English friend* of Home Rale mast admit, says the Spectator, that one of its possible consequences would be separation; and- it behoves them, therefore, to consider, first of all, what separation would practically involve, not to Ireland, which would then cease to be our care, but to the remaining island of the kingdom. There is too much loose talk, and exaggerated talk, afloat upon the subject but nevertheless, the danger would, as we conceive, be both real and great. What are certainties are First, a loss of strength from secession : and, secondly, the creation of a new and dangerous State, practically as near 'as France. The loss of strength in taxation would be considerable, for we should lose the Irish revenue, while retaining mush expenditure on account of Ireland, namely, the corps of observation which it would be necessary to keep in Scotland, the fleet of ironclads which must be stationed in the Irish Channel, the new precautions which Would have to be adopted against smuggling, and the liability for the whole debt. We must accept the whole debt, for the simple reason that we cannot repudiate, and that no one would take an Irish bond; and wo must sacrifice straight off the £100,000,000 of mortgages and other securities held by English insurance societies, bank shareholders, and private individuals, and secured ultimately upon the Irish rent—a loss for ever of capital producing £4,000,000 a year. We doubt if the total loss could be less than an additional inoome-tax of sixpence imposed for ever— serious addition to the already heavy hereditary burden. We should then lose, in addition, a fifth of our recruiting ground, for even if Irishmen were willing to enlist in a purely British army, the feeling against the employment of mercenaries grows high all over Europe. There is a theory entertained in some high quarters that a " free" Ireland might be indifferent or even friendly to England ; hut the facts admitted by Irishmen are opposed to the theory. No people can be more free from English "oppression" or interference, or legislation than the Irish in America; and the Irish in America hate England much worse than the Irish at home—hate her till the perception of the moral law is lost in fury, and respectable Catholics who, in all other relations of life, obey civilised maxims, subscribe to kill innocent Englishmen by dynamite explosions.— Spectator.