THE HOME RULE BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 217, 1 February 1913, Page 5

THE HOME RULE BILL.

THE DEBATE IN THE LORDS. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 31, 11.45 p.m. London, January 31. In the House of Lords the galleries were crowded. Lord C'urzoii said that the finances would create endless fiction. For every right the Bill effected it perpetuated a score of wrongs. The Government had chosen coercion for Ulster instead of conciliation. Lord Halsburv said that he felt humiliated at discussing the measure when everybody knew the whole thing was a farce.

The Marquis of Lansdowne said that the whole scheme was a misfit. What was Irish opinion on which the Government laid such stress? Who were the Irish Party? Lawyers of no particular eminence, journalists of no distinction, and farmers who were not authorities on agriculture. The Irish peasant would sooner have a reduction of rent than a share in self-government. The colonial analogy was absolutely worthless and inapplicable. Britain could not allow Ireland to break away while she had a battalion, a battery or a gunboat left. No amendment could convert the Bill into a measure worthy of the Statute Book.

Viscount Morley closed the debate. He derided the idea of a plebiscite on Home Rule as impracticable. Nothing could be worse than the irresponsible power permeating the Irish administrative system. The Government believed that the Bill, if worked in good faith, would strengthen the sense of responsibility which was the salt of freedom.