udget surplus to the Irish Parliament would
involve, overtly or covertly, the payment of a large subsidy to Ireland
out of the Imperial Exchequer. Such a contingency is not likely to make
Home Rule more acceptable, or the path of any Bill through Parliament
more easy.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 50: See Parliamentary Debates.]

[Footnote 51: Based on White Papers 233 (1910) and 220 (1911).]

[Footnote 52: No contribution from Ireland in this year; local
expenditure is estimated to have been in excess of revenue contributed.]

[Footnote 53: Since the above was written, Mr. Birrell has promised
(March 27, 1912) to publish the report "some time" after the
introduction of the Home Rule Bill.]

V

HOME RULE AND THE COLONIAL ANALOGY.

BY L.S. AMERY, M.P.

There is no argument in favour of Home Rule for Ireland which is more
frequently used to-day than that which is based on the analogy of our
Colonial experience. In the history of every one of our Colonies--so
runs one variant of the argument--from Lord Durham's report on Canada
down to the grant of responsible government to the Transvaal, "Home
Rule" has turned disaffection into loyalty, and has inaugurated a career
of prosperity. Why should we then hesitate to apply to Irish discontent
the "freedom" which has proved so sovereign a remedy elsewhere? Again,
if our Dominions have been able to combine local Home Rule with national
unity--so runs another variant--why should a policy which works
successfully in Canada or Australia not work in the United Kingdom?
Another suggestion freely thrown out is that Home Rule is only the
beginning of a process of federalisation which is to bring us to the
goal of Imperial Federation. In one form or another the Colonial Analogy
occupies the foreground of almost every speech or article in favour of
Irish Home Rule. The ablest, as well as the most courageous, piece of
Home Rule advocacy which has so far appeared, Mr. Erskine Childers's
"Framework of Home Rule," is based from first to last on this analogy
and on little else.

That the argument is effective cannot be gainsaid. It is the argument
which appeals most strongly to the great body of thoughtful Liberals who
from every other point of view look upon the project with unconcealed
misgiving. It is the argument which has appealed to public opinion in
the Dominions, and has there secured public resolutions and private
subscriptions for the Nationalist cause. In one of its for