Mr. Asquith's speech was adroitly reticent. It gave really no
information whatever as to the nature of the Government proposals. When asked what was meant by "the supremacy of Parliament," his answer was solvitur ainbulando. His definition of Home Rule was the "creating in Ireland an Irish Parliament and an Irish Executive responsible to that Parliament to deal with purely Irish affairs," but subject to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament being maintained. This definition would, of course, in theory and law, fit per- fectly a purely Colonial system of government. In the case of the great Dominions, " the indefeasible supremacy" of the Imperial Parliament is theoretically fully maintained. What the country wants to know are the details which Mr. Asquith so airily declared would be solved awbutaturlo—a phrase which Lord Hugh Cecil wittily interpreted as " walking through the Lobbies." As to how the finance problem is to be treated, as to whether Mr. Asquith really proposes that the Irish Members are to interfere in our purely English and Scotch affairs while we are to have no power to interfere in theirs, whether there is to be an " in and out" clause, and, again, under what prin- ciple of right and justice the Nationalists can claim local autonomy for themselves and yet deny it to the Protestants of the North, Mr. Asquith gave no information.
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