The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-18
s,s
HOME RULE FOR IRELAND,
washington Post.

'SNs
There is a saying in Great Britain
that whatever cause the liberal party
mas once up has ncevr failed
hnallN to triumph. There is an older
saving. and one of wider application,
that in h third attempt at anything
lies the charn,. According to these
a~nalogies. the home rule bill for Ire
land, introduced by the liberal party
Tor the third time i'm the British
house Of Yesterday. ought
10 be certain Of passing into law.
IL mas. however, Il hard time before
II. opposed to it is an earnest. de-
tern1incd. obstinate, and far from
negligible minority of the
who will debate with an acrimony
that no public measure has evoked
since the disestablishment of the
irish church in 1869. and who will
exhaust every parliamentary artifce
to compass its defeat or delay. Nor
must IT he forgotten that in that very
assembly G~ladstonc's first home rule
Dill got its auietus in 1886. If IL
ernerEcs safely from the lower cham
Der it will still have to run the gaunt.
let in the house of lords. where. aft
er short shrift. Gladstone's second
bill was unceremoniously burhed In
1898.
The circumstances. however. are
III llS ldNuT JnlS
time than on either of the former oc-
caslons. 1t could not. either in 1886
or 1898. be successfully pleaded that
II majority OF the electors of the Uni
ted Kingdom was for home rule: this
coSent argument can now be truth
fully pressed for all it is worth. for
the constituencies have twice recent.
~ glvcn it their commendatory Yer.
dict. In 1898. the one n only time
I II came hnfnrn thu hn1rG- re o.lA
that body had full powers of reiec.
ton, from which there was no ap.
peal. Now. owing to the constitu-
tional amendment adopted in the
summer of last year. the house of
lords may delay, but cannot ultimate
ly defeat. legislation. Any bill sane
toned in three successive sessions by
the commons passes automatically
over the heads and against the pro-
test OF the peers.
The provisions of the new home
rule bill are in many respects gen.
erous. and will go Il long way to sat
isfy the agc-long Irish demand for
%nationhood. No home ruler OF the
modern type can cavil at the main
tenance of the supremacy of the i'm
perial parliament as long as full au-
tonomy is conferred or Ireland for
Irish concerns. nor at the exclusion
from the control Of the Irish parlia-
ment of the crown, the army, the
navy. endowment or prohibition of
religion. and all imperial affairs. as
we'll as those measures for which
imperial credit has been pledged,
such as land purchase. old-age pen
sions, national insurance. p%ostofice
savings banks, and existing public
loans.
We fancy. on the other hand. that
questions likely to cause irritation
among some sections. Of Irish home
rulers. especially those who do not
see eye to eye with John Redmond.
will be the ~nominational character Of
the proposed Irish senate. the reten-
ton of Irish customs and excise as
an imperial asset. the regulations re-
garding the constabulary. and the
veto and ~suspensory powers vested
in the lord lieutenant and to be exer-
cised by him on the instruction Of
the imperial executive. One OF the
recognized flaws of Grattan's parlia-
ment of 1882 was that all its meas
ures were subject to the great seal
of England. and the last proviso NAM
ed above seems to leave the restored
Irish parliament in no better case.
The saving point is that the bill is
subject to amendment. and it is to be
hoped that. when it finally passes, 1t
~ h legitimate wants n aspira-
lions Of the country for whose good
It is intended; to do away with that
%sectarian %aninosity which has been
the curse of Ireland, for centuries.
and to contribute in large measure to
the peace. prosperity. and happiness
Of every section Of tho Irish DeODl0.