The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-07
HOME RULE IS VICTORIOUS BUT GOVERNMENTS MAJORITY IS GUT Amendment To Reject Irish Defeated Of By Plurality Of Eighy-Speakers Praise Patience Of
 Catholics And Nationalss In Crisis

I the bi1l.> They cheered wildly when | the result Of the vote was announced and gave ovations to the members of
 the government and the nationalist 1 leaders as they left the house.
 Sir Edward Carson suggested that | MT. Redmond, like the goVernme ent,
 was trying to create an atmosphere l favorable to himself without an att | tempt to find practical compromise: | The talk of federalism had not, he said, advanced the settlement of the Ulster question an iota. If the gov
 ernment had said it was willing to | hang up the home rule for Ireland bill I until a. federal solution had been pass
 ed into law then, said Sir Edward, the
 sincerity of the Ministerial offer would
 be unquestionable He contended, however, that the adoption of the pres
 ent Home Rule bill would effectually
 bar the way to federalism.
 SIR EDWARDS PROPOSAL.
 Sir Edward then repeated his offer
 that if the government would agree
 to allow Parliament to decide at the
 end of the six years period of exclu-
 sion whether Ulster. should have the continued right of local option he
 would call an Ulster convention and submit the question to it. The only solution, declared Sir Edward, was i to leave Ulster out of the bill until her consent to inclusion had been won. | eral, told the House the governments offer to Ulster of temporary local op- ton was still open, but that Ireland i could not be permanently divided. The government, he said, was aiming at Irish unity and was therefore unable ] to concede permanent exclusion to Ul- ster. If the efforts to reach a com promise should fail the government was going to carry the Home Rule for | Ireland bill as it stood.
 Timothy Healy, the independent-na- tionaIist, charged MT. Redmond with de1udins Ireland From St. Edward Grey's speech announcing that there must be an appeal to the electorate before the bill came into operation he said it was clear that the whole mat ter was the purest gamble for Ireland. If the advocacy of coneiliatfon made by William OBrien had been follow ed instead of calling the U1stermen Orange dogs and carrion crows the question would have been much nearer settlement than it is, he concluded.
 FEARS COMING DISASTER.
 Bonar Law, the opposition leader. said the government was pushing the bill through under a system which was virtually a one chamber gov ernment. He recalled the phrase of Sir Edward Grey that "a single cham Der government meant damnation and disaster 'and said that the prophecy was being fulfilled. He himself had done his best to make it come true
 At the same time. continued MT. Law, the sunionists were ready to make every reasonable sacrifice to avoid the calamity of civil strife. There were only two ways whereby that could be averted; one was the exclusion of U1- ster from the bill, the other an appeal to the people If the proposal were made for a renewal of the converse tion between the leaders of the two parties, as Sir Edward Grey had sug- gested, the opposition would accept it, of it while MT Redmond exercised the power to veto any proposals put for ward by the opposition.
 In the opinion of the speaker, the situation never was more replete with danger than at present. If the gov ernment chose, it had the power to ruin Ulster and it's own country, but it never would succeed in compelling
 Ulster by force and against it's will to go outside the protection of the Brit iSh Parliament.
 PRAISES CATHLOICS' PATIENCE MT. Birren wound up the debate He argued that civil war was inpos- sible. He was amazed at the pa tience displayed by the Catholics and Enationalists in Ulster under great pro- yoca ton. It showed, he said that there was no need of civil war to eff feet a settlement of the question. UI- ster must be won; her opposition must be overcome. but it could not be by
 force; hence the government pro- posaIs.
 MT. BirreIl made pointed reference to the strong objections in Ireland to
 the permanent exclusion of Ulster and appealed to the unionists not to press the government too hard in the mat ter of time limit. The government
 was shutting no door to a settlement and was keeping open every proposal which had been made.
 Closure then was carried by a vote of 356 to 272, and the amendment for
 the rejection of the bill was defeated 356 to 276. The announcement of the figures, showing a reduced government majority, was received with loud op- position cheers and cries of 'rWhere is l your independent majority
 by the Business Mems association is