HOME RULE FOR SCOTLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 22

HOME RULE FOR SCOTLAND.

The protest of the Liberals of Midlothian is probably very much more significant than it appears to be. Naturally people are apt to imagine, at the first blush of the thing, that the Liberals of Midlothian have begun to rebel. But a very little thought is enough to dispel that idea. The Liberals elected Mr Gladstone to carry Home Rule for Ireland. That was the first article in his programme during the last electoral campaign as it was in the campaign of 1886. Not one jot had the veteran statesman abated in the meantime of his energetic persistency. Not a word would he hear for the postponement of Home Rule to more convenient aeasen. Every man in Midlothian understood perfectly well that Mr Gladstone had sacrificed power to Hume Rule, and that he would not return to power without it. There can be no doubt therefore that the Liberals of Midlothian elected MrGladstone primarily for Home Rule. Since then nothing has happened except the introduction of a Home Rule Bill, in every way better and in all possible degrees more suitable than the Bill whose defeat in 1886 did not deprive the Liberal leader of his Midlothian following. But that is not a reason for protest, for heat, for objection. On the contrary it should make the Midlothian Liberals all the stronger in their adherence to their leader. For which reason we regard the cable message descriptive of theirattitude as incomplete. These people have, according to the message, asked for Scottish Home Rule, and protested against the retention of Irish members at Westminster. If that were all it would be simple nonsense. The men who want a separate Legislature for Scotland are not likely to make a protest, the logical consequence of which must be the absence of Scottish members from Westminster. We take it that the Midlothian Liberals have asked for Scottish Home Rule, and protested that, until they get it, they cannot submit to have Irish members at Westminster. That is a logical attitude, which every Imperialist will understand at once. It is, moreover, very significant. It proves conclusively that the Scottish Liberals recognise the Home Rule Bill of 1893 as the first step in the Federation of the United Kingdom, which is in time to be the basis for the Federation of the Empire. That is the view we took of the Home Rule Bill when its provisions reached U 3. We then predicted that the United Kingdom would regard the Bill in that light. The action of the Scottish Liberals proves that a beginning has been made towards the fulfilment of that prediction. The whole of Scotland will, we feel sure, presently bliow its hand and Wales will follow without unnecessary *delay, and their conclusion is

one which England will not be able to resist. In being asked to accept Irish Home Rule the United Kingdom is asked, virtually, to accept a return (for local affairs) to the Heptarchy for the sake of consolidating the mighty Empire which has in eleven centuries grown out of the Heptarchy. That is being recognised, and the recognition will be marked in history as the most momentous decision ever come to by the English people.