ld cheat their hopes, but it would
afford them the means of gaining their end. It would not give assurance
to Unionists, it would not be a triumph of Unionist policy, it would
rather be the destruction of Unionism. The one course of safety is to
take care that at the next general election the country has laid before
it for determination a clear and unmistakable issue. The question for
every elector to answer must be reducible to the form Aye or No; will
you, or will you not, repeal the Union and establish an Irish Executive
and an Irish Parliament in Dublin? If the question be so raised
Unionists have no reason to fear an answer.

The policy of Unionism has always relied on an appeal to the nation.

The one desire of Unionists has always been to fight their opponents on
the clear unmistakable issue of Home Rule. The policy of Separatists has
been to keep Home Rule in the background whilst making its meaning
indefinite, and to mix up all the multifarious issues raised by the
Newcastle programme, as well as many others, with the one essential
question whether we should or should not repeal or modify the Act of
Union.

To their policy of appeal to the people the Unionists will, of course,
adhere. The House of Lords will, it may be presumed, as a matter not so
much of right as of obvious duty, reject the present Home Rule Bill, so
as to refer to the electors of the United Kingdom the question whether
we shall, or shall not, have a new constitution. Even if such a
reference to the electors should result in a Gladstonian majority, it is
still possible that a further dissolution might be necessary. The
majority for Home Rule might be much reduced. I doubt whether Mr.
Gladstone himself would maintain that with a majority say of ten or
twenty, a Minister would be morally justified in attempting a
fundamental change in the constitution. As to such speculative matters
there is no need to say anything. It is worth while, however, to repeat
a statement which cannot be too often insisted upon, that the most
important function of the House of Lords at the present day is to take
care that no fundamental change in the constitution takes place which
has not received the undoubted assent of the nation. The peers are more
and more clearly awakening to the knowledge that under the circumstances
of modern public life this protection of the rights of the nation, which
is in complete conformity with democratic principle, is the supreme duty