HOME RULE. (Daily News, Nov. 20.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 281, 28 February 1874, Page 2

HOME RULE. (Daily News, Nov. 20.)

The Home Rule cry, sincerely uttored, we do not doubt, by & few, is a false pretence on.tiio part of th« many who join in it. There are three section! who affect to support Mr Bull's progriipime, each with an object different from its iVHoetttes and from the scheme of the Prune Minister Deugli' 1 t n j'" the First Irish Cabinet. With the priests, the demind is sinmly a throat levelled at the Imperial Government a". I legislature. Ii dip tto! put to their heads to enforce the ulea for what is called Catholic Education But there need be no alarm. The pUtol u not loaded, aud if it were, the representative of the Vatican would not da.ro to pull the trigger. There ai-e, secondly, the Fenian agitators, open or •ecret, who desire complete separation ; aftd who, having o-nined an Ins'i Parliament and Ministry, would soon find the superior authority of nn Imperial Cabinet mnd Legislature an unendurable bnrden, and the golden link of the Crown but a gilded shivery. Besides these, there are a few men whose ends are sensible enough, though their means are absurd, and who fnncy that by an extravagant domand they may get a reasonable concession. Asking for an Irish Parlisment they may obtain Irish County Boards. But even the*e coalesced sections make together a poor show. Their gathering demonstrates only their weakness. We will not raise tno question how far it is competent for one party to a political contract out of which mutual obligations hare sprung to retire from it at pleasnre. The Act of Union is not a treaty which it is open to either party to "denounce" after a term of years or at a moment's notice. In saying this, we assume, in contradiction to all appearance, that the Irish people desire to undo the bond which unites them wth this country. To talk of a Federation is little better than ill-considered gabble. A Federal system, to be worth anything, must ppring out of definite historic conditions, such as exist now, or did once exist, in Switzerland, in the United States, in the Austro-Hungannn Empire, and in G-erinany ; but do not exist within the limits of the United Kingdom. Even where they are found, the tendency elsewhere is rather to diminish than to increase them In Switzerland, every successive revision of the Constitution strengthens the central at opposed to the cantonal power. In the United States, the late war consolidated against the undue claim of Stnte sovereignty that more perfect union w'nch the existing constitution substituted for the looser Articles of Confederation In Germany the ifimo phenomenon has been t\rn more sir.Lingly displaced. The union of Austria «nd Hungary presents n near parallel to that which is proposed between England and Ireland. But the present position of tfungarv in the Austro-Huuganan Empire is obviously one of transition. From a conquered pro vince the is becoming the ruling power ; and the time may probably arrive when the German provinces of AustroHiingary will gravitntp to Germany, and convert, the Austro Hungarian Kmpire mto an Hungarian monarchy . In *11 Mies' thinst*, and in the action which iub»tituted the united Phlv of Cavour for the I'altan Confederation dreamed of by Nxinlron 111 . there 19 no precedent for the scheme of an Anglo-Irish Federation, but a distinct warning against it. Ihe necessities of tie a»e :»r« making federal governl'lent-- more and mor« isn Innun ; and umtanan governments ure not likely to beooint federal. T.ie steps taken in 1707 and in 1800 will not be retraced by us. Other countries, on the contrary, neem disposed, within the limits of their o portunities, to imitate them.