On Thursday, when Lord MacDonnell's proposal to with- draw the
Purchase Acts from the control of the Irish Parlia- ment was under discussion, Lord Lansdowne announced a most wise and statesmanlike determination which had been come to by the Unionist leaders. They bad decided not to attempt to recast the Bill in respect of the three included provinces, but to concentrate their attention entirely on the one question of avoiding civil war. They would support amendments good in themselves, but their responsibility
for them was "wholly different from their responsibility for their own amendments." To these, he added, " we shall certainly adhere." This means, of course, that there may be bargaining and compromise on the con- sequential amendments, but none in regard to the vital principle—namely, that those portions of Ireland the inclu- sion of which must cause civil war shall be excluded from the operation of the Home Rule Bill, and that the exclusion of such parts shall be absolute in every particular. The decision thus come to is clearly obligatory. It is useless to try to tinker the Home Rule Bill into a good Bill. All that can be done is to make Exclusion effective for the pur- pose for which it is designed—i.e., the avoidance of civil war. Exclusion of a type that will not do this, or the exclusion of too narrow an area, would be merely a dangerous mockery.
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