In his peroration Mr. Asquith summed up his proposals as
follows :—
" To the Home Ruler, Irish or British, they may involve, at any rate, the postponement of a symmetrical system of self-govern- ment, and to the Unionist, Irish and British, they will necessitate an unwelcome acceptance of an Irish Government in Dublin. But, on the other hand, they hold out to the Home Ruler a prospect of an undivided Ireland, brought in time to its full measure of development not by coercion but by consent; and to the man of Ulster they offer, in the first instance, a free choice, and after- wards the certainty that their status cannot be changed without the assent, expressed or implied, of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. I speak after long and anxious consideration. There is no arrangement for an agreed settlement in which the balance of give and take is likely to be more full and adequate. This is a test case. The best traditions of our fathers, no less than the undisclosed and fateful issues of the present, are speaking to us to-day in imperious accents and asking us to pursue if we can the way of unity and peace."
