shall decide whether a law passed by the Irish Parliament violates
the provisions of the proposed Home Rule Act? Above all, can the
wit of man devise any scheme of constitution which shall at once
satisfy the aspirations of Irish Nationalism and the patently just
demand of Ulster that Protestants shall retain the freedom and the
rights secured to them as citizens of the United Kingdom? Is there
any form of Home Rule which will satisfy the desire of Irish
Nationalists for something approaching national independence
without the urgent peril of rousing civil war between Ulster and
the Parliament at Dublin? All these inquiries, and others like
them, harassed the Parliament of 1893; they were all answered by
Unionists, that is by the majority of the British electors, with a
decided negative; they will all be raised and will all need an
answer when the leaders of the Coalition condescend to produce
their next Home Rule Bill or even to reveal its fundamental
principles.

_Fourthly_.--England in the circumstances of to-day is threatened
with two perils which did not exist in 1893, and yet are of
stupendous gravity.

The first is, that in the case of a measure of Home Rule the
opportunities for discussing its provisions which are contained in
the Parliament Bill may turn out nominal rather than real. It is
not at all certain that for such a Bill, even though it be abhorred
by the electorate of the United Kingdom, the House of Lords will be
practically able to secure the delay and elaborate discussion to
which Mr. Asquith professedly attaches immense importance.
Unionists will believe that the measure passed by a large majority
of the House of Commons is detested by the majority of the British