The Irish standard., 1912-11-16

provided by our bill will be found
in practice adequate, and ever ample
but we are now, as We always have
been as l said in the house of CON-
mons, as I said when addressing al
great meeting of nationalists in the
capital of Ireland, Dublin, we are now,
as We always have been, ready to con-
slider in the most sympathetic spirit,
any proposed extensions of those safe
guards which are consistent with the |
governing purpose OF the bill, namely: !!
the granting to Ireland of home rule !
in regard to purely Irish affairs. I'll
ever there was case which required, |
and which would have repaid, serious !
and statesmanlike presentation and
handling, it was this case of Ulster.
now, in point of fact, has it been, and
is it being, treated by the responsible
leaders of the opposition do not
dwell on the organized demonstrations
that have been going on during the
last few weeks in the north of Ire
land. AS an index of local opinion
and feeling they have revealed moth
ing which was not perfectly we'll
known before. If, as I suggest was
the case, they were intended to I'M
press Great Britain, speak moder-
ately when say that their promoters
would have been better advised to
omit a number of items on the pro-
gram which have offended both the
good taste and the good sense of
Englishmen and Scotsmen,
Rights Of the Minority.
Il want to make clear what is the
central position now taken up, as
sented to and adopted in letter or in
speech by all the responsible leaders
of the Tory party. Let there be no
mistake about it. 1t is not now, what
ever 1t might have been, it is not
now question of demand for the
separate treatment Of Ulster or any
part of Ulster. That has been ex-
| pressly repudiated. 1t is now, if it
has ever been question of increasing
or strengthening the safeguards pro.
vided by our bill against even the
remote possibility of religious or pc.
litical oppression. 1t is not even a
question whether the people of Great
Britain, through their elected repre-
sentatives, have approved, or would,
= it again consulted, approve, of the
granting of home rule, which is de-
sired and demanded by nearly four
ffths of the population of Ireland.
| All these things have gone by the
board, and the claim now made is
the Ulster minority has right to
say that under no conditions will they
consent to Irish home rule, and that
is right so sacred and SO indefensible
that, whatever be those conditions,
they are entitled to resist, and, If
need be, to. resist, by force, the grant
ing of the imperial parliament of self
government to Ireland as whole.
Il need not tell the people of this
J country that the government and the
parliament of the United Kingdom
are not going to bow to such threat.
But what are we to say to this ut
terance and its deliberate indorse-
ment by the responsible leader of
what used to be called the constitu-
tional party? In plain language, the
claim put forward is a negation of
the first of the root principles of dem.
ocratic government In democratic
country such as ours, no law can pass
on to the statute book without the
consent of a majority of the elected
representatives of the whole people
Democracy is supplied in this way
with what never existed before, a
safeguard and a sanction for the SOW.
ereignty Of law, for II law is bad
if it is proved by experience to be
injurious in its working or oppressive
in it's operations, if it was passed by
representatives who misconstrued the
mandate they had received from thu
people, it can always by the same
machinery which passed it be altered
amended or repealed.
"HHVo vr,, Rad thio IN ocf ecc;ot,