WHAT LIES AHEAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 53, 24 June 1914, Page 4

WHAT LIES AHEAD.

Discussing the Home Rule question, “The Nation” says that by the passing of this Bill, Britain is absolutely and irrevocably committed to a political change which will bo fraught with grave practical anomalies and inconveniences until it is expanded into the more consistent, and comprehensive shape of federal government for the . United Kingdom. Afterdwelling upon the magnitude of the difficulties which beset this path, the writer goes on to say; “We must face a diminution of / the universal and peculiar prestige of the House of Comomns, and of, the supreme judicial authority of Parliament.. We must have a documentary Constitution and a supreme Federal Court to interpret it—that is to say, ve must make up our minds to exchange a more elastic for a less elastic form of government. These are vast changes of balance and structure, and they call for the closest consideration. We must, above all, cut our way through a terrible financial tangle, complicated by grave issues of taxation. We must be prepared, in fact, for a complete remoulding, not only of political institutions, but of political forces, which, indeed, the present party system could hardly survive. But if the Opposition is prepared to enter a discussion, and to try and find a solid basis of federal agreement, and not merely to throw new delays and distractions into the Irish issue, we should support an endeavor to combine a peaceful settlement of the Ulster question with a wider constitutional reform.”