electors. But how will it be possible to carry on the government of
Ireland, to maintain order, or to save a loyal minority from gross
oppression after a Home Rule Bill applauded by Separatists has been
passed through the House of Commons, and for the first time has
been rejected by the House of Lords? Every official in Ireland,
down from the Lord Lieutenant to the last newly appointed member of
the Irish Constabulary, every Irishman loyal or disloyal, will know
that the Bill will within a year or two become law and that Irish
Nationalists will control the Parliament and the government of
Ireland. Will not the House of Lords be urged by every alleged
consideration of good sense and humanity to close without delay a
period of uncertainty which is threatening to turn into a reign of
anarchy or of terror? The question supplies its own answer. The
second peril is one whereof nobody speaks, but which must occur to
any man who has studied the history of the past eighteen years or
reflects upon the condition of public opinion. The peril, to put
the matter plainly, is that Home Rulers will not stop at attaining
Home Rule for Ireland, and that they may, and probably will,
attempt to undermine the political predominance of England.
Everything points in this direction. The agitation for Home Rule
has fostered in Ireland, and to a very limited extent in certain
other parts of the United Kingdom, a feeling approaching to
jealousy of English power. England or Great Britain is the
predominant partner. England is wealthy, England is prosperous.
England, as the language of common life imports, is the leading
member of the United Kingdom. Lord Rosebery announced with wise
foresight that Home Rule in Ireland could hardly be established
with benefit to the United Kingdom until the assent thereto of the
predominant partner had been obtained by force of argument. The
idea was grounded on common sense. Will it not suggest to Irish