_ will assuredly remind my readers that in 1893 the hereditary House
of Lords, and not the newly elected House of Commons, truly represented
the will of the nation. This is a fact never to be forgotten. It is of
special import at the present moment. Another equally undoubted fact
deserves attention. Home Rulers themselves despair of carrying a Home
Rule Bill until they shall have turned the Parliament Bill into the
Parliament Act, 1911, and my readers ought never to forget that the
passing of the Parliament Bill into law destroys, and is meant to
destroy, every security against the passing of any Home Rule Bill
whatever which the present majority of the House of Commons choose to
support. This gives an ominous significance to the obstinate refusal of
the Government to alter or amend any of the material enactments
contained in this ill-starred measure. _A Leap in the Dark_, combined
with a knowledge of the Parliament Bill and the legislative dictatorship
with which it invests the existing Coalition, suggests at least four
conclusions which must at all costs be forced at this moment upon the
attention of the nation. They may be thus summed up:

_First_.--If the Parliament Bill passes into law the existing
majority of the House of Commons will be able to force, and will
assuredly in fact force, through Parliament any Home Rule Bill
whatever (even were it the Home Rule Bill of 1893), which meets
with the approval of Mr. Redmond, and obtains the acquiescence of
the rest of the Coalition.

The Coalition need not fear any veto of the House of Lords. There
will be no necessity for an appeal to the electors, or in other
words to the nation. The truth of this statement is indisputable.
The legal right of the majority of the House of Commons to pass any
bill whatever into law, even though the House of Lords refuse its
assent, is absolutely secured by the very terms of the Parliament
Bill. That the leaders of the Coalition, such as Mr. Asquith, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. John Redmond, will press their
legal right to its extreme limits is proved to any man who knows
how to read the teaching of history, by the experience of 1893. Mr.
Gladstone used every power he possessed, and used it
unscrupulously, to drive a Home Rule Bill through the House of
Commons. He was a man trained in the historical traditions of
Parliament.