ocal, was required to
be paid, and it was the duty of the Receiver-General to take care that
all claims of the English Exchequer, including especially the
contribution payable by Ireland for Imperial purposes, were satisfied
before a farthing found its way into the Irish Exchequer for Irish
purposes. The Receiver-General was provided with an Imperial Court to
enforce his rights of Imperial taxation, and adequate means for
enforcing all Imperial powers by Imperial civil officers. The Bill did
not provide for the representation of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament
on all Imperial questions, including questions relating to Imperial
taxation, but it is fully understood that in any Bill which might
hereafter be brought forward relating to Home Rule those defects would
be remedied.

An examination, then, of the Home Rule Bill, that "child of revolution
and parent of separation," appears to lead irresistibly to two
conclusions. First, that Imperial rights and Imperial powers,
representation for Imperial purposes, Imperial taxation--in short, every
link that binds a subordinate member of an Empire to its supreme
head--have been maintained unimpaired and unchanged. Secondly, that, in
granting Home Rule to discontented Ireland, that form of responsible
government has been adopted which, as Mr. Merivale declares--and his
declaration subsequent events have more than verified--when conferred on
the discontented colonies, changed restless aspirations for separation
into quiet loyalty.

That such a Bill as the Home Rule Bill should be treated as an invasion
of Imperial rights is a proof of one, or perhaps of both, the following
axioms--that Bills are never read by their accusers, and that party
spirit will distort the plainest facts. The union of Great Britain and
Ireland was not, so far as Imperial powers were concerned, disturbed by
the Bill, and an Irishman remains a citizen of the British Empire under
the Home Rule Bill, with the same obligations and the same privileges,
on the same terms as before. All the Bill did was to make his Irish
citizenship distinct from his Imperial citizenship, in the same manner
as the citizenship of a native of the State of New York is distinct
from his citizenship as a member of the United States. Now it has been
found that the Central power in the United States has been more than a
match for the State powers, and can it be conceived for a moment that
the Imperial power of Great Britain should not