The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1914. HOME RULE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15393, 9 July 1914, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1914. HOME RULE.

Tlic a mewling Home !' ule Jnll lias passed its second rending' in the House of Lords with only ten dissentients. Init that does not mean thai a majority of the I'pper Chamber are satisfied with the measnre as it stands. The leaders of the Unionists liuve indicated that thev are profoundly dissatisfied with it, and everything now depends on the amendments which the Government may be willing to agree to in the committee stage. If the Government' refused to agree to any amendments the Hill would presumably be thrown out by the Lords, and Home Kule for Ireland would be legally established on the basis of the original measure, which can b» passed under (he Parliament

Act despite the Lords* disapproval. with no provision for the exclusion of Ulster counties i'i any circumstances. But more than legal authority is needed to make Home Rule a success. The consent of the governed is necessary to tranquil and prosperous administration, and n system of self- government for the whole of Ireland which could only be enforced in Ulster by coercion might be a barren triumph for the Nationalists. The Government is evidently convinced that coercion, and perhaps civil war. would be required to make the Ulster Protestants accept Home Rule, and the amending Bill which it has brought down represents its first offer to exclude them, according to the verdicts of county referenda, for a period of six years.- The Ulstermen object to the county method of exclusion, and to tlie time limit sought to be imposed on it. Unconditional exclusion . now, they say, presents the only hope that- the3 r will be included in the future by their own consent. And since Lord Crewe, who represents the" Government, in the House of Lords, has asked the Opposition whether, if the total exclusion of Ulster is included in the Bill, they will guarantee that there will be 110 civil war, it would seem that the Government is prepared to yield something very like that extreme demand of the Ulstermen. The prospect of Home Rule being established for less than the whole of Ireland must be a triumph fraught with disappointment- to the Nationalists, who have always considered their country as one entity, but it means real defeat to the Unionists. The dream of a complete self-governing Jrelaud is more than half-way towards being realised. But the dream of an Ireland which would never know Home Rule is dead for evermore, ilr Balfour, " the most strenuous and consistent and formidable opponent of Home Rule.'' knew what he was saj 7 ing when he stated a few weeks ago that he saw before him the failure of a life's work." A writer in the latest " Fortnightly/' whose sympathies are clearly Unionist, comments on that striking confession as follows: "It is said that 3lr Balfour s speech had a depressing effect upon a certain section of the Unionist Party. But facta are facts. The 'cause of the I nion is lost, and lost hy a strange irony of circumstance at the very moment when tlie cause of Ulster is won, as won we believe it to be." The same writer stresses the importance of an assurance given by Sir Edward Carson, directly after Balfour's speech, tliat if Home Rule were to come to jiass, his earnest hope and prayer would be that the Government of Ireland for the South and West might prove such a success that it would be in the interests of Ulster to move towards that Government and to come into it and form one unit with the rest of Ireland/' The leader of the Covenanters also stated that he iooked forward to f " a stronger Ireland as an integral unit in a federal system." llie fact is that' Ulster has not demanded exclusion from the Home Rule Bill because she wished to be cut off from the rest of Ireland, but because she wished to destroy the Home Rule Bill, and remain with the rest of Ireland under the direct government of Westminster. That object she cannot hope now to accomplish, and if the Home Rule Bill is passed, and provision made for Ulster's exclusion, provided the Irish Government proves competent and successful every year will see the influences strengthened which will incline the northern province to come into the house with her sisters. _ That, at any rate, is the opinion of the Unionist writer we have quoted, and there seems to be much reason for it. To exempt the Ulstermen from Home Rule now may really prove the best wav to bring them under it. 1 °