The Irish standard., 1914-07-25

Il say unhesitatingly that, if we
had nothing but this Bill as we
know it before US, should have
suggested to your Lordships that
it would be useless to continue
the discussion"
The Lords would move amendments
to make it into "a real and adequate
Exclusion Bill" On the other hand,
they would reject the Home Rule Bill.
He spoke of the duty of public men to
avert civil war, and he concluded with
these remarkable words:
"And add this, that if at the
eleventh hour the noble marques
opposite, or indeed anyone else,
were to offer to us a better way,
we should be ready to explore it.
We should do so recognizing to
the full-and here concur with a
passage which the noble Viscount
quoted from Mr.. Balfour,-that
there is great Irish problem to
be solved, that it requires investi-
cation, that it requires to be han
died with courage and with SYM
pathy, and that we cannot fall
back upon a mere policy of mega
ton and destructive criticism. For
the moment there is a definite
advance, am afraid with every
slender hope of success, along the
narrow path which this Bill
points"
Other Speeches.
Viscount Bryce favored Home Rule
within Home Rule" in preference to
exclusion, and he was followed by the
Archbishop of York, in q speech which
has attracted much attention. The
Archbishop said that if there was no
mandate for Home Rule, neither was
there any for civil war. A general
election would not settle the ques-
ton. What was wanted was full
er and wider consideration of the
whole matter. ulster" could not be
coerced, and some form of Irish self
government was inevitable. Gwen if
you kill this Bill, you cannot kill the
hopes which lie behind it." "Is it I'M
possible" he asked, "even now to de-
wise the means by which some form of
self-government can be arrived at
which will be acceptable to the ma
jority of Irishmen, and not inconsis-
tent with the supremacy of the I'M
perial Parliament" He proposed a
statutory commission to consider the
question. "The time has come when
our only chance of peace is that the
Irish parties should come together as
fellow-Irishmen to consider the matter
with an honest desire to reach some
agreement. was very much i'm
pressed by what Lord Bryce said about
the unity that underlies these divi-
sions Of Irish people. do not ignore
the racial and religious antagonisms,
but they are dormant until they are
provoked, and one of the chief means
by which they have been provoked has
been the interference of English party
politics in Irish affairs. It is the
stumbling steps of our English politics
which have stirred up the antagonisms
of the Irish people," These are very
fine sentiments, showing that reason is
making some way, even in the House
of Lords, on the Irish question, but
they are rather belated. Ireland has
won her Home Rule Bill, and she
means to have it. If the Unionists
want a settlement on Irish national
lines, they have time and opportunity
now without waiting for the delibera.
tons of any extra Parliamentary Com.
mission. But, SO far, neither the Car
sonites nor the Unionists have ad
vanced an inch on the way to peace
Lord Willoughby de Broke moved the
rejection of the Amending Bill, but II
is foregone conclusion that it will
get a Second Reading, and that the
Lords will proceed, in Lord Lans
|
downe's words, to make it "a real and
adequate exclusion Bill"; that is, pre-
sumably, Bill which it will be impos
sible for Irish Nationalists even to
consider, not to say to accept.
"Nhen An lrishman Has Rifle"
Mr.. s. L. Gwynn, M. p, in an ad
mirable article on the Lords debate
contributed to the Westminster Ga
zette," sums it up in a few pregnant
sentences: He says:
"The Amending Bill is to be &C.
cepted only If it contains such con-
cessions as will, do not say allay
listers fear, but save listers
face to listers own satisfaction.
Yet certain things are plain.
There is q general recognition