HOME RULE BILL

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1651, 18 January 1913, Page 5

HOME RULE BILL

ANOTHER STAGE OVER.

THIRD READING CARRIED.

THE HOUSE EXCITED.

By Telegraph—Pros? Association-Copyright

(Reo..January 18, 0.20 a.m.)

London, January 17. Tho galleries of the House cf Commons wore crowded yesterday when tho dobato on Mr. Balfour's motion for the rejection of tho Dill was continued. Tho speeohes, howevcri were below Wednesday's level.

Sir J. A. Simon, Solicitor-GenTal, made a barbed allusion to Mr.' Bonar Law's promise last year of the special advantages that would accrue to Ireland from Tariff Reform, and wishes to know whether the offer was still open.

Mr. F. E. Smith (Unionist K'.P. for tho Walton Division of Liverpool) paid a tribute to Mr. Asquith's speech, but declared that the Government wero nil optimists, and that the Irish party and Mr. Asquith had indulged in a process of mutual accommodation. They gave him tho Welsh curates and ho gave them Ulster.

The speech of Mr. Redmond, Leader of the Nationalist party, was flat until ho touohed- tho personal note and referred to the four generations his family had sent to -Westminster'■'■ to ' advance Ireland's cause. He declared that millions of people of Irish descent wore eagerly awaiting the'news of tho passage of tho Bill, which would reconcile Ireland to the Empire. He regarded the Bill as the final 1 settlement of tho international quarrel, but as a purely provisional settlement of the financial "arrangements.

Mr. Bonar Law, Leador of the Opposition, said Mr., : Redmond knew that the financial provision was an " olaborate protencel but: with the leverage of. tho Irish Parliament he" .would alter it "as ho pleased. Mr. Bonar Law, continuing, ridiculed tho claim that the Bill was tho beginning of a fedorol system, 1 or that it i would relieve. tho congestion at Westminster.' No rebellion:would be better justified than Ulster's, where tho people wore ready to sacrifice lives, and the Government knew it.

Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland,'wound up tho debate. Ho rofused to be scared by the spectre of oivil war conjured up by those disliking the Bill. The guillotino fell before he had concluded. Mr. Balfour's motion was rejected by SGB votes to 258, and the Bill read a third'time,> the voting, boing:— For tho third reading* 367 Against 257 Majority for 110 The announcement of the division was the signal for prolonged cheering and waving of handkerchiefs and . ordor papers Tho chceri were taken up by ,the crowd in the lobbies, and hats, and ,6tioks were wave'd. Thero were also ones of "God save Ireland I" Outsido the of a crowd, but not a one, cheered, and there was some,hooting, bnt no disorder. Nino invalided hers f were' tmablo to secure pairs. \ Tho majority, 2JB Liberals, 82 Nationalists and Independent Nationalists, 37 Labour members voted for the Bill. Two Liberal members, Mr..Roberts and Sir C. J. Cory (St. Ives) voted against tho Bill. Mr. Redmond issued a message thanking the. Liberals, Labour .members, and Scottish and Welsh members for championing tho cause of justice to Ireland. Irishmen at Homo and .in!'exile would, ho declared, accept the Bill as a British act of appeasement and reconciliation welding them into on indissoluble bond of brotherhood and affection for tho Motherland, and immeasurably strengthening tho Empire. , _ During the debate Mr. F. Smith (Unionist) asked the Premier to declare the terms of the Government for its consent to the exclusion of Ulster from tho provisions of the Bill. Mr; John Redmond (Leader of tho Nationalist party) said the exclusion would be opposed chiefly on the ground that nothing would 'compensate the Nationalists for mutilation of the country.

EXCITEMENT IN LONDON. "ULSTER WILL FIGHT." ' London, January 161 , Wt«n the. Homo Rule Bill had passed, its third reading, the Nationalists shouted themselves hoarse. They cheered Parnell,/Redmond,' and Asquith, and the British democracy. ■ ' ■" A frantio cheering crowd filled the outer lobby. Thero was a: demonstration at Whitehall.' Clioors and counter-cheers were given, and there were some cries of will fight I" There was also a demonstration outside the Constitutional'iClub. 1 Tho result was greeted with groans. Mr. F. E. Smith, Unionist M.P., addressing the crowd at the Constitutional Club, said tho ,'fate of the Bill would not do determined in tho House pf Commons, but in tho streets of Belfast. Tho Bill wa9 read a first time in the Houso of Lords. Much excitement prevails in Belfast, whore tho Bill was publicly burnt.