Mr. Shaw-Lefevre deserves credit. He contrived, in a speech at
Bradford on Monday, to express the exact condition of the Liberal mind as to the proper relations between an Imperial and an Irish Parliament with an accuracy we have not seen equalled. He said :—"Every reasonable concession had been made to the Dissentient Liberals. Any new scheme for Home-rule must provide in some way or other for the con- tinued representation of the Irish people in the Imperial Parlia- ment for Imperial purposes. The Dissentient Liberals ought to be content with the concession, the measure (Home-rule) ought to be a genuine and complete one, and not a sham,. and it ought to provide that the conclusions of the Irish Parliament should not be subjected to being overruled by the Imperial Parliament. At the same time, the Imperial Parliament must be maintained, and for that purpose it was necessary that there should be some representation of the Irish people in it." The italicised lines are simply delicious. The Imperial Parlia- ment is to keep the Irish Members, in order that Ireland may be represented—and Radieals pacified; but it is also to be provided that the decisions of the Irish Parliament are to be beyond revision. Ireland is to be independent and subject both together, and Britain, while unable to interfere, is to be ruled by Irishmen.
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