The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1913. HOME RULE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 17 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1913. HOME RULE.

The Home Rule question appears to be growing in bitterness daily, and if the professions of its opponents are sincere, instead of a gigantic bluff, there will be serious ''trouble in the Amen corner" before the Government's measure can be brought into practical operation. The seizure of arms in Ulster and the re-1 ports of the drilling and arming of volunteers in Belfast and. other towns can mean nothing but a tacit threat of civil war. But even more uneasiness must be created by the vigorous incitements to insistence and violence that are being made by a number of prominent politicians,and other notabilities.. The latest addition to the ranks of these disloyalists is Sir Edward Carson, P.C., the Unionist member for Dublin University, and a man who lias held high offices under the Crown; both in Ireland and in England, Sir Edward Carson has always been a strong opponent of the principles of Home Rule and has been against it with all the extravagant oratory of the-typical Irish iawyer, r ., : ';'But he 'has been led into a graver, discretion, if yesterday's cable" reflectsyhis' lutter.an(ees properly; Sir Edward, CarSon, according to the cable, in a speech 'at Glasgow, advised his fellow-countrymen to arm themselves as well as they could to repel the attempt to filch their elementary rights of citizenship. ,If violence resulted from his speeches he. was willing to be made responsible. "Honor and conscience were more valuable than the Privy Council's oath, and he would prefer to be stripped of all his honors in the service of his countrymen. This is idle frothing, but it is inflammatory frothing, too. With his long experience of political life, Sir Edward Carson knows perfectly well that if any section of the community is dissatisfied with the Government's legislation, it has a constitutional remedy. They must educate public opinion to their own point of view, I convert iheir minority into a majority and return a Parliament pledged to repeal the obnoxious legislation. They have not yet attempted to exhaust constitutional methods, but are already talking "fire and sword, red ruin and the breaking up of laws," with a voluble easiness that is intended to cover'up their casuistry. It is as though the Prohibitionists in New Zealand were to uireaten to sack the country on account of their objection to the licensing laws. Indeed, they would have an even stronger ease, for tney are already a majority m the land. But they have adopted the constitutional method of appealing to Parliament and embarking upon a campaign of moral suasion. One thing is certain, that Great Britain w~- not allow her laws to be flouted by an irresponsible minority of her people, and if Ulster should really contemplate an appeal to arms, it simply means her effectual suppression and appalling misery for her homes. Sir Edward Carson talks glibly of being prepared to ue stripped of all his honors in the service of his countrymen.' This is mere oratorical'flambuoyancy, for Sir Edward Carson uas effectually stripped himself of all honor by turning disloyalist an., inciting his countrymen to wiiat practically amounts to murder. Beside these gentlemen the suffragettes, with their strenuous outrages, are mere lambs. We hope that when the time comes for enforcing the very temperate terms of the Home Rule Bill Ulster will have been brought to See things in a calmer and more dispassionate mood and will not, in a foolish spirit of martyrdom, attempt to "seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth." In the meantime it seems to us curious that the law does not take steps to (.■Actively prevent public utterances which are admittedly a deliberate attempt to precipitate anarchy. If Sir E. Carson were allowed to cool his heels in Ilolloway Gaol for a few months, even in a self-imposed martyrdom, he would have time to meditate upon the extravagance of his methods and perhaps reform his ways.