s of the South African Constitution.

IN OR OUT?

Every student of the Home Rule question knows that Mr. Gladstone
several times varied his proposals in regard to the Irish
representation at Westminster. The Irish Party were, from the
beginning, indifferent on the point; but it was quite clear that this
was a matter vitally affecting Imperial interests. The first proposal
grafted into the Bill of 1886 was that the Irish should cease to attend
at Westminster altogether. But, after seven years of consideration,
there grew up a general agreement that the entire absence of the Irish
Party at Westminster might create a series of difficult relations
between the Parliaments, and might even gradually lead to separation.
The first proposal of the Bill of 1893 was that the Irish members
should attend in slightly reduced numbers and vote at Westminster only
on Irish concerns. But this proposal--known as the "In and Out"
clause--found little favour in debate, and suffered severely at the
hands of Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Gladstone finally left the matter to the
judgment of the House of Commons, and--after a severe Parliamentary
crisis, in which the Government narrowly escaped destruction--it was
decided that 80 Irish members should sit in the British House of
Commons without any restriction of their power or authority.

In the Bill of 1912 the solution finally reached in 1893 is again
adopted, with one vital difference--that the Irish members to be
summoned to Westminster will be reduced not to 80, but to 42. Those
members will possess full Parliamentary powers, as indeed it is right
and necessary they should, as long as the Parliament at Westminster
continues to exercise such large powers over Ireland. But Mr. Asquith
threw out the suggestion that the British House of Commons should, by
its Standing Orders, arrange for a further delegation of Parliamentary
power to national groups. The House of Commons has already a Scotch
Committee, and to that might be added an English Committee and a Welsh
Committee. It would be a serious thing for the central body to
over-ride the opinions of these committees.

But Mr. Asquith also threw out an even more important hint as to the
future development of the Home Rule policy. It is clear that if the
Irish Home Rule Bill is simply the first stage in a process which will
lead to the creation of Home Rule Parliaments for local affairs in
Scotland, England and Wales, then such slight control as the