South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1893.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7069, 15 February 1893, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1893.

The Grand Old Man has made the second effort of his old age. His amended Home Rule Bill is now before the British Legislature and the nation and will soon be before the empire in more or less detail. We do not believe in ‘‘Home Rule for Ireland,” but in Home Rule all round ; and that Home Rule iu Ireland would have a much better chance of being peacefully accepted and of proving successful, if a general measure providing for Home Rule for Scotland, and Home Rule for England, and for Wales too if she wants it, were adopted. If a general measure were brought forward, every member of the House of Commons would have an immediate Interest in making it a workable measure. A partial measure like the Home Rule for Ireland Bill, will meet with more resistance than assistance, because the majority of the House are indifferent to it, or hostile to it, as a special local provision. We have only to ask what would be the reception of a Bill in our House of Representatives to abolish the county system and effect a return to provincialism in one part ot the colony, say Auckland ; or of a Bill to establish a new education system in Canterbury. All the rest of the colony would seek for the defects in it ; whilst in general measures for such purposes, there would be at least an equal tendency to seek for merits as for demerits. Home Rule All Round and a Federation Parliament appear to be the final necessity of the British Empire, and the more directly it is sought to work out the necessity the better.

Mai O’Rell told ua that Fiance fights for glory, England for territory, Russia to allay internal troubles. Russia’s war policy is variabWeaough to include as a cause the taking advantageof the internal troubles of others. Is she going to take advantage of Britain’s worry over the Home Rule Bill to steal a march on Herat 1 A cablegram gives a hint of this. It might help Mr Gladstone wonderfully if she did. The Home Rule party would not consent to postpone their work on account of a foreign war, and for the sake of obtaining undivided attention to the foreign complication, the Home Bill might be rushed through.