HOME RULE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15097, 13 September 1912, Page 4

HOME RULE.

Sir,—Tho constitutional struggle now pro" greasing at the seat of the Empire is moss certainly an object lesson, not only to those who live under the Union Jack, but to the nations generally. For 30 years past the, what Mr. Asquith terms, " great overwhelming majority of the Irish people " has, in the most constitutional manner, demanded autonomy for Ireland. One-sixth of the Irish people opposes it. This minority states that it will _ never become a party to assist in governing its own country, as it prefers tho rule of the stranger. "Good government," said tho late Mr. • Campbell-Bannermaii. "is no substitute for homo government:" therefore, how much more strength is added when had government is substituted? Is there an honest Englishman who will aver that Ireland since the union has 'been well governed? ' Were ho to say so, ho would falsify history. Mr. Bonar Law loudly demands that Home Rule shall again bo submitted to the electors. Sir Edward Carson, who professes to follow him, lias said in the House of Commons, and on public platform?, that whether the electors carry it, or veto it, lie and his irreconcilables from the northeast corner of Ulster are unalterable in their opposition to it. They talk civil war. Imagine a man who never in his life carried anything more formidable than a brief-bag. telling us that ho will lead a cohort against tho British army. At the time Catholic Emancipation, Ballot Act. Irish Church Disestablishment, and alteration of the Coronation Oath were under.public discussion the same heroes breathed forth civil war, or, as they elegantly put it, " inn kmc the Crown rock." A more insincere, hollow cry has never been made. They will refuse to be put outside the Empire. This from a body which, during the past, year, threatened to invoke the aid of tho Kaiser and his Pomeranian Guards. They will not pay taxes to an Irish Parliament. Does anybody think that the?« gentlemen will cense taking tea and susrar and whisky and Gallaher's tobacco? Will they shut the doors of their warehouses ana shops to ' their excellent, customers in the South of Ireland? John Bull doesn't believe it. nor does anybody else, not oven the Unionist party managers, who are engineering th# embryo rebellion. Of one thin? Englishmen may rest assured. Should the present. Homo Rule Biil be shelved, they may succeed in reconciling one-sixth of th» people of Ireland, but at the cost of estrang* intr the remaining five-sixths. Again, there will be no "hands across the sea" with America. British Ambassadors to America and America's public men have repeatedly informed the Imperial Government, both Unionist and Liberal, nf this. The late Mr. Gladstone warned (he. House of Commons of it in 18% and 1893. Heme Rule moans solidifying the Empire; aye. it will'prove a greater asset than a scniadron of dreadnoughts. It will heal a. festering sore, ana unite a people, not by a piece of parchment, but by community of interest. There are over two dozen autonomous forms of government in the British Empire. AVill one mora in Ireland cause dismemberment? Jr.STITIA.