Parliament, precisely identical in personnel. Ulster Unionism presents a
similar solidarity.

Whenever a point of any novelty is made, the Chief Secretary's secretary
slips over to one of the Irish Officials who on these occasions lie
ambushed at the back of the Speaker's chair, and returns with all the
elation of a honey-laden bee. His little burden of wisdom is gratefully
noted on the margin of the typewritten brief which has been already
prepared in Dublin by the Board under discussion, and, entrenched behind
this, the Right Honourable gentleman winds up the debate. Sometimes his
solemnity wrings laughter from men, sometimes his flippancy wrings
tears from the gods, but it does not in the least matter what he says.
The division bells ring; the absentees come trooping in, learn at the
door of the lobby, each from his respective Whip, whether his
spontaneous, independent judgment has made him a Yes! or a No! and vote
accordingly in the light of an unsullied conscience. The Irish
officials, with a sigh of relief or a shrug of contempt, collect their
hats and umbrellas, and retire to their hotels to erase from their minds
by slumber the babblings of a mis-spent evening. And the course of
administration in Ireland is as much affected by the whole proceedings
as the course of an 80 h.p. Mercédès is affected by a cabman's oath.

So much for exclusively Irish affairs. When Ireland comes into some
"general" scheme of legislation the parody of government becomes if
possible more fantastic in character. Let me take just three
instances--Old Age Pensions, Insurance, and the Budget. In regard to the
first it was perhaps a matter of course that no attempt should be made
to allow for the difference in economic levels between Great Britain and
Ireland. This is the very principle of Unionism: to apply like methods
to things which are unlike. But in the calculation of details an