ed Unionists cannot be imagined.

Still, however, the "Unionists" hope to be able some day to offer some
form of self-government to Ireland. For party purposes they are wise in
postponing that day to the latest possible period, for its advent will
probably dissolve the union of the "Unionists." Lord Salisbury, Lord
Hartington, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Chamberlain cannot agree upon any scheme
which all can accept without a public recantation of previous
professions. Mr. Bright is opposed to Home Rule "in any shape or form."
Mr. Chamberlain, on the other hand, is in favour of a great National
Council, on Mr. Butt's lines or on the lines of the Canadian plan;
either of which would give the National Council control over education
and the maintenance of law and order. Latterly, indeed, Mr. Chamberlain
has advocated a separate treatment for Ulster. But the first act of an
Ulster Provincial Assembly would probably be to declare the union of
that Province with the rest of Ireland. Ulster, be it remembered,
returns a majority of Nationalists to the Imperial Parliament. To
exclude Ulster from any share in the settlement offered to the other
three Provinces would therefore be impracticable; and Mr. Bright has
lately expressed his opinion emphatically in that sense. In any case,
Lord Hartington could be no party to any scheme so advanced as Mr.
Chamberlain's. For although he declared, in his Belfast speech, that
"complete self-government" was the goal of his policy for Ireland, he
was careful to explain that "the extension of Irish management over
Irish affairs must be a growth from small beginnings." But this "growth
from small beginnings" would be, in Lord Salisbury's opinion, a very
dangerous and mischievous policy. The establishment of self-government
in Ireland, as distinct from what is commonly known as Home Rule, he
pronounced in his Newport speech to be "a very difficult question;" and
in the following passage he placed his finger upon the kernel of the
difficulty:--"A local authority is more exposed to the temptation, and
has more of the facility for enabling a majority to be unjust to the
minority, than is the case when the authority derives its sanction and
extends its jurisdiction over a wide area. That is one of the weaknesses
of local authorities. In a large central authority the wisdom of several
parts of the country will correct the folly or the mistakes of one. In a
local authority that correction to a much greater exten