, but it is urged that, while due account
should be taken of this circumstance in any plan for financial
reconstruction, Ireland ought not to be relieved of her proper share
of the cost of the war or of liability for her share of the National
Debt.

Ireland is to contribute an annual sum to the Imperial Exchequer,
calculated on the relative taxable capacity of Ireland. This will
cover interest on the Irish share of the National Debt and a
contribution to the Sinking Fund, as well as to defence and other
Imperial expenditure.

I do not intend to subject the foregoing scheme to any detailed
criticism. The method of constituting the All-Ireland Parliament was
open to grave objection. It was to be a single chamber legislature and
was to be selected or nominated rather than elected. This damned it
right away from the democratic standpoint, and the defence of _The
Times_ that "the system of delegations would probably have the
advantage of being the simplest inasmuch as it would avoid
complicating the electoral machinery" was not very forceful. The
supreme test to be applied to any plan of Irish Government is whether
it provides, beyond yea or nay, for the absolute unity of Ireland as
one distinct nation. Unless this essential unity is recognised all
proposals for settlement, no matter how generous in intent otherwise,
must fail. Mr Lloyd George grossly offended Irish sentiment when he
flippantly declared that Ireland was not one nation but two nations.
This is the kind of foolishness that makes one despair at times of
British good sense, not to speak of British statesmanship. Mr Asquith,
whatever his political blunderings--and they were many and grievous in
the case of Ireland--declared in 1912:--"I have always maintained and
I maintain as strongly to-day that Ireland is a nation--not two
nations but one nation." And those Prime Ministers of another day--Mr
Gladstone and Mr Disraeli--were equally emphatic in recognising that
Ireland was one distinct nation.

_The Times_ itself saw the folly of partition, for it wrote
(24th July 1919):

"The burden of finding a solution rests squarely upon the shoulders of
the British Government, and they must bear it until at least the
beginnings have been found. Some expedients have found favour among
those who realise the urgency of an Irish settlement, but have neither
opportunity nor inclination closely to study the intricacies of the
question. One such expedient is partition in the