HOME RULE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1330, 6 January 1912, Page 5

HOME RULE.

NO CHANCE DURING THIS PARLIAMENT. VIEWS OP AIR. TIM HEALI. Cy Tolcrraph—Press Association—Oopyilghl London, January 1. Mr. Tim Healy, K.C., Indopondent Nationalist, addressing a meeting of tho All-for-Ii eland League hold at Mallow, County Cork, said that ho and his colleagues would support any reasonable measure of Homo Rnlo that would bo fair to Ireland fiscally. Mr. John Redmond's promise.? of Homo Rule, added Mr. Healy, were false. There was no chance of a Homo Rule Bill passing during the present Parliament. THE GOVERNMENT'S PLAN. SPEECH BT MR. BIRRELL. In a speech at Ilfracombe oh October 19 Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, said: "Our scheme absolutely involves tho setting up in Ireland of a Parliament consisting of two Chambers, with on Executive—that is, a Cabinet of Ministers—responsible to it. It involves that this Irish Parliament shall have full representative powers and control over purely Irish concerns, and that, in considering what thbse concerns are, wo shall bo found taking a wido view, our object being to admit a national demand for national responsibility and to establish yet' another there _ aro already a great number in tho Empire— subordinate to the Imperial Parliament, ■which will bo an opportunity, I liopo and pray and believe, in time to come, to bo a training school for Irish statesmen nnd. for Irish administrators. (Cheers.)

Among the opponents of Home Rule two, great difficulties were talked about. They were money and religion. (Laughter.) It w,is a very odd thing about money and religion that tho people ■who got tho most excited about money were the people who had the mOst of it —(laughter)—and tho people who got most eioited about religion v/oro the peoplo who had none of it. (Laughter.)" Tho Chief Secretary tho cost of civii government in England, Scotland, ofld Ireland. In England ho Raid that it was 18s. 9d. per man; in Scotland, £1 2s. Bd.; and in Ireland, ,£2 4?. Jd. Sir Edward became almost lyrical in his joy over- those figures. If' Ireland every year now got 1J millions more than .she contributed what he (Mr. Birrell) wondered would be the stato of things CO years- hence at tho same rate. Economies could be effected under Iloine Rule, but if it was refused tho expondituro would largely increase.

iv Rule was the true way out of those difficulties and the only wav out of the difficulties, then they must face the monetary difficulty—face it boldly and in no niggardly spirit, because tiio .very worst thing that could happen to Great Britain financially was to.allow, things to keep on indefinitely on the present basis. I hen there was the religious difficulty. He did not deny its existence although lie doubted its right to be called "religious." (Hear, hear.). .Most of tho people in Ireland who felt the religious difficulty njost 6troiigly wero the very people who were tho most enthusiastic Home Kulera. (Hear, hear.) 'Iho position was that those people wanted to bo in the asoendancy. for the moment money and religion had shaken hands. Tho money, argument reus prevailing over tho religious argument, for the advocates of the latter , were rather afraid by their attitude of losing tho votes of Roiuan Catholics in England, many df whom were strong Tories, for the present, and ft codo of civility prevailed, but he did not know how long it: would ondure. He was afraid it must break down, for in truth nothing but the spirit of l'rotestftnt ascendancy had prevented Home Utile from being passed a long time ago. , .The time had Come, to go forward with "courage on-that .groat business. > 'They had put their hands to the plough, and they would, not look back. (Cheers.) Never in i the history of the world had the experiment of self-govehimcnt.. failed.. Why should it fail in the case of Ireland? Instead of Ireland's being a blot upon our escutcheon she.would in timo be a real integral part 6f a United Kingdom. (ChCerS.) A fow days later Mr. John Redmond said of the Bill:—"I cannot ti-day speak with freedom about tho terms of tho coming Horns Rule Bill. That Bill is not only in course of preparation: it is to-day almost completed. (Cheers.) I cannot to-day—and you will easily understand the reason—tell you its details, but I can say this to you, and I do so on my own responsibility, that, botK in its principles and in its details, it will be a Bill satisfactory to the' Nationalists of Ireland."