ubious expediency. The
objection itself is valid, but it is in the present instance
inapplicable. My conviction is that the introduction of the Referendum,
in one shape or another in respect of large constitutional changes,
would be a distinct benefit to the country. It affords the one available
check on the recklessness of party leaders; for the check is at once
effective and in perfect conformity with democratic principle and
sentiment. A second objection is that a Referendum renders any law which
obtains the approval of the electors more difficult of alteration than
an ordinary Act of Parliament. The allegation is true, but it really
tells greatly in favour of an ultimate reference to the people of any
Home Rule Bill passed in a Parliament. If such a Bill becomes law, it
ought to be a law not admitting of easy repeal. No doubt reaction may be
justifiable, but reaction is a great evil, and the Referendum puts a
check as well on reaction as on hasty innovation. In any case the time
has arrived when Unionist statesmen should consider the expediency of
announcing that no Home Rule Bill will finally be accepted until it has
undergone a reference to and received the approval of the electors. On
no better issue could battle be joined with revolutionists than on the
question whether the people of the United Kingdom should or should not
be allowed to express their will. Unionists have every reason to feel
confidence in their cause; their only policy, their one path of safety
is to make it, as they can do, absolutely plain that they rely upon
justice, and that they appeal from parties to the nation.

We have now before us the essential features of the new constitution
framed by Gladstonians for the whole United Kingdom. We know its
inherent defects and inconsistencies; we have considered what may be
said on its behalf, or rather of the policy of which it is the outcome.
The proposed change in our form of government touches the very
foundations of the State, and deeply, though indirectly, threatens the
unity of the whole Empire. Never surely since the day when the National
Assembly of France drew up that Constitution of 1791, which built to be
eternal endured for not quite a year, has an ancient nation been so
strangely invited to accept an untried and unknown polity.

The position indeed of the French constitution-makers was in some
respects stronger and more defensible than the position of our English
innovators. The members