THE HOME RULE PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1909, 18 November 1913, Page 6

THE HOME RULE PROBLEM.

A most important development has taken.place in connection with the Home Rule problem. According to a cablegram which Wq publish in another column, the British Government is submitting to Mr. Bonar Law, the Leader of the Opposition, a propos.il to exclude Ulster from Home Rule for a definite term of years, and .to impose ail additional burden oil the taxpayers of Britain for tho purpose of compensating the rest of Ireland for the temporary loss of Ulster's wealth. This is the first definite proposal which the Government has made to.meet the uncompromising determination of the people of Ulster to resist to the uttermost any attempt to compel them to submit to the jurisdiction of a Dublin Parliament. Until a few months ago, when Loro Loreburn admittea that any attempt to put the present Home Rule scheme into force would hare Vuty serious consequences, the Liberals and Nationalists professed to , believe that Ulster's military preparations were simply a gigantic piece of bluff; but now even Ministers admit that Ulster is in deadly earnest, and they are naturally disinclined to take the grave responsibility of having to deal with a state of civil war in Ireland. Lord' Loreburn's appeal for a conference in order to arrive at a settlement by eon-sent at first met with very little encouragement from either side._ Sir Edward Cahsos still maintained his attitude of no compromise, leaving himself only the barest loophole for possible negotiation; and Mb. Redmond would not hear of Home Rule without Ulster, and demanded that the Government should go full-speed ahead with the Bill. The great mass of the people of Britain, however, have no wish to see Ulster- forced into open rebellion, and the steady pressure'of public opinion is compelling the leaders of the various parties concerned to endeavour to find some way out of the difficulty which 'would meet with general acceptance. Tho result lias been that the Government has come to recognise that the fullspeed ahead policy would run them on the rocks, and Mn. Onuiwmnx now admits that "the Protestants of Ulster should somehow be satisfied and comforted." It has long been recognised that the only way to satisfy them is to cut Ulster out of the Home Rule scheme, and the latest news is that the Government prepared to submit to the inevitable, and to exclude Ulster for some definite period from (he jurisdiction •.nf the Tnsh Parliament which will ,bo established ir Dublin. No one

can pretend that this would bo an ideal settlement—indeed, it is doubtful if an ideal settlement is conceivable in the circumstances; but the general impression seems to be that this is the only hopeful Lille of advance towards the solution of the problem, though it looks like putting off the evil day in the hope that something may turn up in the meantime. The political separation of one corner of Ireland from the rest of the country is naturally distasteful to the Nationalists, while the abandonment o! their co-religionists in the other provinces must be objectionable •to the Protestants of Ulster. The Government's proposal must probably be regarded as a cautious preliminary move, and the first tangible basis which has been authoritatively put forward for further negotiations, It may be assumed that Mr. Rgdmosd was consulted regarding, the proposal, and it remains to be seen whether Sir Edward Carson and the Unionists will bs_ able to find in it sufficient to justify them in accepting it as a possible foundation for a more or legs satisfactory solution of the Home Rule question.