ow to details. There are five ways of dealing with the question, and of
these I will take first the four different ways of including Irish
Members in the House of Commons, leaving their total _exclusion_ to the
last.

1. Inclusion of Irish Members in their full numbers for all
purposes--that is, with a right to vote upon all questions--British,
Irish, and Imperial. [By "full numbers" I mean, not the existing figure
of 103, but numbers fully, and no more than fully, warrantable according
to the latest figures of population--say 70.]

2. Inclusion in full numbers for limited purposes.

3. Inclusion in reduced numbers for all purposes. [By "reduced numbers"
I mean in numbers less than population would warrant.]

4. Inclusion in reduced numbers for limited purposes.

Now (4) I only set out for symmetry. It has never been proposed by
anybody, and hardly needs notice.

The three others are alike in two respects--that they leave untouched
the question of representation in the House of Lords, and that they
directly infringe both the Federal principle and the Union principle by
giving representation, both in a unitary and a subordinate Legislature,
to one portion of the realm.

Let us look at No. 1--inclusion in full numbers for all purposes. This
was Mr. Gladstone's revised proposal of 1893, and it formed part of the
Bill thrown out by the Lords. The number of Irish Members was to have
been 80. But reduction, as Mr. Gladstone admitted, would scarcely affect
the inherent difficulties of inclusion. Nor must it be forgotten that
reduction from 103 to 70 can be justified only by the concession of a
large measure of Home Rule. It is one of the paradoxes of an unnatural
Union that, over-represented as Ireland is, she has not now power enough
to secure her own will. To reduce her numbers, while retaining large
powers over Irish affairs at Westminster, would be unjust. For the time
being I shall defer the consideration of those powers, and argue the
matter on broad principle, assuming that the powers retained in Imperial
hands are small enough to warrant a reduction from 103 to 70.

Now let us apply our touchstone to this question of inclusion in "full"
numbers. Will it be good for Ireland? Surely not.

(_a_) It will be bad for Ireland, in the first place, to have her
energies weakened at the outset by having to find two complete sets of
representatives, when she will be in urgent need of all her best men to
do her own work.