The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 27, 23 May 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

A Canadian view of the Homo Ruloj Bill is given by Colonel S. H. JP. Graves in the “Fortnightly Review,” and in the course of a lengthy and interesting article, ho states that some of the features of the present Irish Home Rule Bill possess a special interest for Canadians from the fact that like, or analogous, provisions exist in the constition of Canada, and that the conditions of the two countries, in so far as one or two of those particular provisions are concerned, are pretty much akin. Colonel Graves at the outset, ventures to sug-i gest that Mr Asquith does not ap-[ pear to have sufficiently realised that, j with the lapse of time, written con-1 stitutions acquire the habit of alter-1 ihg themselves. Ho then shows the radical changes which have taken place in the Constitution of Canada, where every one is loyal to the central Government, and wishes it well, and pertinently asks what is likely to happen in Ireland, where, as time goes on, the local government is tolerably sure to regard the limited i autonomy now preferred as a mere instalment, and in that view will he hacked in the House of Commons by a delegation ready to attack any cen-( tral ministry that refuses Fresh and i still further concessions. “It is oh-j vionsly one thing,”' says Colonel | Graves, “for England to grant Home Rule to a distant Colony which has j always been loyal to the Crown, and j another to give it to Ireland, where j most of the people hetiev that the | Almighty has destined them to be an j independent nation, free from British rule. Matthew Arnold had a j theory that the Celt m so much a ; oroisturo of seatimout as to b» al-|

ways in revolt against the despotism of fact, only the Celt does not mean half he says. That may or may nut be true of Irishmen in Ireland, but anyone who has been in America can vouch that, so far as the Irish ana Irish Americans of the United States and Canada, now the larger half ofj the race, are concernd, Rome Rule has never stood for anything so paltry as a second-rate Parliament on College Green.” The writer goes on to accuse Mr Asquith of having, inj tlie Irish measure, copied the weakest feature of the Canadian Constitution in the granting of a yearly subsidy from the Imperial Treasury to enable the cost of Government to be defrayed. In Canada, Provincial Cabinets get together and compel the Federal Government to grant large subsidies, and he suggests that the Nationalists will excel at this business and give the British taxpayer but little rest. One or the most important questions in Canada, as in Ireland, is iu the protection of the rights of minorities, and Colonel Graves contends that the constitutional guarantees originally erected for that purpose, are. bit by bit, being swept away. He proceeds to briefly deal with a memorable case in which Roman Catholics have been wronged, and with another in which two hundred thousand non-Catholics occupying a position not unlike that of the Ulster Protestants, are the victims. . These wrongs have arisen iu connection with education questions. In the United States it is recognised that religious equality is necessary to national existence, but things are different in Canada. When England acquired the country in 1763, the only inhabitants, except the Indians, were French Canadians in the Valley of the St. Lawrence. Elementary education,_ wo are told, had been neglected under French rule, and when the British Governors began to establish it, it was deemed advisable to give Separate Schools to the English-speaking settlers, who were coming in. This condidtion of things still prevails in Quebec. The Public Schools are Roman Catholic schools, in many cases taught by monks and nuns, and are everywhere administered by the Bishops. The .Separate Schools are non-sectarian, and used to be attended by a sprinking of Catholic children until the priests ordered them out. Fifty years ago Separate Schools—in this instance, however, \Roman Catholic schools—were introduced in the Province of Ontario for the benefit of the Irish Catholic and French Canadians minority. In early days what is now the Province of Manitoba was wild territory where a few French half-breeds had French and Roman Catholic Schools of their own. In 1870, Manitoba was taken into confederation, and these schools received aid from the Provincial Treasury until 1890. when the Legislature abolished them. A case was carried to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which decided, in effect, that whilst for technical reasons the Catholics of Manitoba were not entitled to denominational schools they had a moral right to them and should appeal to the Federal Government, which is authorised by the Constitution to go to tho assistance of any religious minority that considers itself to Have been wronged in the matter of education. This provision, it is pointed 'out, was' inserted in the Constitution expressly to safeguard the educational rights of the Englishspeakig minority in Quebec; so that, other considerations aside, one would have imagined that tho Englishspeaking and noh-Catholic Canadians in all the Provinces would have been glad to see relief of some sort granted to the Roman Catholics of Manitoba. Instead of that they voted out the Federal Ministry which was about to afford them relief, and though by a recent arrangement Roman Catholics are now being treated with much liberality in the Manitoban towns, their State-aided Separate School system has apparently gone for ever. Colonel Graves thus comments on this:—“Protestant bigotry is the Roman Catholic explanation of this affair, but tho growing national feeling amongst English-speaking Canadians has probably more to do with it. The New West pleaded that the Federal Government’ should not be allowed, to Saddle it with the dualism of race and religion that has turned Old Canada into two separate and distinct communities dwelling together in uneasy political union; and the English-speaking portions of Old Canada responded accordingly. My only concern just now, however, is to point out that the religious guarantees on behalf of the Manitoba minority failed at the first- serious test. . Tho Roman Catholic Church in Quebec started humbly enough under British rule, even abandoning her old right of tithe; but before long enjoyed far larger powers than site had possessed under trench and is now not so much an imperium in imperio as the imperium itself.” Colonel Graves deals very fully with this aspect and compares what Canada has experienced to the outkoa for Ireland under Homo Rule. He shows that the Roman Catholic Church regulates public or elementary education in Quebec, wircli is avowedly sectarian: while tbe P'O-

testant minority enjoys mm-secianan schools. On paper, l o nothing could hi* more equriaule; in practice, it is unjust in some respects to the minority. 'Hie example given is that it ii Protestant owns a factory or other business, his school rates go to the nort-sectarian schools; but if he takes in Protestant or Jewish partners ami turns his firm into an incorporated company, the rates by the Provincial law bare to ho divided in proportion to the number of Roman Catholics residing in the district;

that is to say the bulk of them go to the Roman Catholic schools. Finally, Colonel Graves concludes: “Whatever else happens in Ireland under Home Rule, the Roman Catholic Church, with the Legislature under her control, is tolerably sure to sap and mine the Protestant guarantees, not, of course, from any evil motive, but from the natural prompting of self-interest that, whenever she has the power to make and unmake the civil laws, it is Iter duty to exercise it for her own spiritual and temporal aggrandisement. She did this in M exioo until she was dethroned, and is doing it without let or hindrance in French Canada.”