The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1912. THE HOME RULE BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 78, 19 August 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1912. THE HOME RULE BILL.

The passage of the Homo Rule Bill lias been provocative of a singularly picturesque passage at arms in the daily press at Home between Mr. Bonar Law and Mr. Winston Churchill. These" gentlemen's letters, even judging only from the necessarily attenuated* cablegrams concerning them, have been, responsible for some very apt simile, as well as for seme effective retaliation. But, however delightful Mr. Bonar Law's elegant attack upon Mr. Churchill may be from the point of view of breakfast-table literature, it is impossible t(j shroud the principle at stake by lively word-paint-ing and bold denunciation. Mr. Bonar Law, the Leader of the Unionist' Party in the House of Commons, in his now celebrated Belfast speech, openly counselled a policy of mutiny and civil war for. Ulster, and it was only natural that Mr. Churchill should have taken him to task for a speech which was a deliberate attack upon the Constitution. It is easy for the London Times, which is a strong supporter of the Unionist Party, to talk of Mr. Bonar Law's action as "making it easy for a solemn sophist like Mr. Churchill to transfer to the Unionists the responsibility of a danger which the Government themselves created." There is no sophistry whatever in Mr. Churchill's statement. Robbed of its bree.ry rhetoric, his declaration simply amounts to a contention that the minority in the country must accept the .views of the vast majority where constitutional law is concerned. It would be just as easy to argue in New Zealand that if Prohibition were carried, the moderates ■would have the right to take up arms and refuse to obey the. mandates of the law. The Irish Party has won a'battle that it has been fighting by constitutional means for more years than some ' of us can remember, and with Parliament and the people at its back it is impossible to conceive of its being robbed of its victory at the querulous behest of an irresponsible minority. Mr. Bonar Law's incitement to violence is both undignified ami criminal. The Government's action may have been primarily the cause of the discontent in Ulster, but if that discontent should take the form of open revolt Mr. Bonar Law must take his full share of the respon-

sibility, for lie has deliberately attempted to fan the smouldering spark of mutiny into flame. Internal dissension is always a danger to a country, but when it takes the form nf a deliberate revolt against the studied law of the land it eease9 to become a danger, and becomes a menace. ■ The Home Eule Bill was hedged around with so many safeguards for the wishes and privileges of the Unionisis, and its ultimate, acceptance is open to review in so many constitutional ways over a period of years, that the attitude of its opponents in clamoring for open revolt will not stand-one moment's consideration. The position is "a difficult one for the Covcrnment. but it must be faced with the'most uncompromising 'determination. ' There can lie no spirit of compromise. The? law is the howewr, unpalatable it may be, and to; retire in the. face of an ugly minority threat would be to aim-a blow at British prestige throughout the Empire, arid seriously threaten the constitution itself. '■ A policy' of fixed determination Is ytlio only possible one at the moment. [ Mf. Boitar Law and Sit; Edward Carson may imagine that their inflammatory speeches are a reflection of the opinions of ftheir constituents, but the whole tra-. ditions of history-go to acclaim that there are oecasions'when fidelity to personal conviction must give place to ! fidelity to country.