awful freedom, if they
suffer unlawful injury to life or limb in any part of the United
Kingdom, the responsibility for seeing that right be done falls on the
executive, and in the last resort on the Parliament, of the United
Kingdom. The delegated authority of a subordinate legislature will not
free the principal from the liability inherent in the delegation of
power; and if Home Rule in Ireland fosters, as it must foster, the
notion that the United Kingdom is not as a whole responsible for
misdeeds done in Ireland, this is one of the worst results of the
proposed constitutional change.

But putting this matter aside, an examination into the various forms
which Home Rule may assume leads to the conclusion that whatever be its
hypothetical benefits it threatens more than countervailing loss to
England. There is no need to do more than refer in most general terms to
evils which have already been set forth in detail. Home Rule under two
of its three possible forms dislocates and weakens the whole English
Constitution. Under its least objectionable form--that of Colonial
independence--it brings upon England many of the perils which would
follow upon the national independence of Ireland; it involves, if the
experiment is to have a fair chance of success, large pecuniary
sacrifice, and it does not present a reasonable hope of creating real
harmony of feeling between Great Britain and Ireland. Home Rule, lastly,
under whatever form, whilst not freeing England from moral
responsibility for protecting the rights of every British subject, does
virtually give up the attempt to ensure to these rights more than a
nominal existence, and thus gives up the endeavour to enforce legal and
equal justice between man and man. It must also be considered that an
examination into the different forms of Home Rule, while it shows that
no scheme of legislative independence for Ireland offers any promise of
finality, also suggests that the form of Home Rule least injurious to
England is the form which gives Ireland most independence. The inference
from these facts cannot be missed. Home Rule is the half-way house to
Separation. Grant it, and in a short time Irish independence will become
the wish of England. If any thorough-paced Home Ruler admit this
conclusion, and suggest that Home Rule is a desirable transition towards
Separation, the answer is that Home Rule is such a transition, but
assuredly that such a transition is not to be desired. If