outcome of a distrust of Ireland which it was the ostensible object of
the measure itself to remove.

IV.

IRISH POWERS AND THEIR BEARING ON EXCLUSION.

I pass to what I suggest to be the right solution: Total exclusion, as
proposed by Mr. Gladstone in 1886, though he shrank from recommending
what he knew to be its financial corollary. Mr. Bright regarded
exclusion as the "best clause" of a dangerous scheme, and Mr.
Chamberlain has admitted that he attacked it, as he attacked the
proposals for Land Purchase, which he knew to be right, in order to
"kill the Bill."[79] I propose only to recapitulate the merits of
exclusion before dealing with the alleged difficulties of that form of
Home Rule, and in particular with the point on which the controversy
mainly turns--Finance.

To give Ireland Colonial Home Rule, without representation in London, is
to follow the natural channel of historical development. Ireland was
virtually a Colony, and is treated still in many respects as an inferior
type of Colony, in other respects as a partner in a vicious type of
Union. We cannot improve the Union, and it is, admittedly, a failure.
Let us, then, in broad outline, model her political system on that of a
self-governing Colony.

History apart, circumstances demand this solution. It is the best
solution for Ireland, because she needs, precisely what the Colonies
needed--full play for her native faculties, full responsibility for the
adjustment of her internal dissensions, for the exploitation, unaided,
of her own resources, and for the settlement of neglected problems
peculiar to herself. As a member of the Imperial family she will gain,
not lose. And the Empire, here as everywhere else, will gain, not lose.

These ends will be jeopardized if we continue to bind her to the British
Parliament, and restrict her own autonomy accordingly. Reciprocally, we
damage the British Parliament and gratuitously invite friction and
deadlock in the administration either of British or of Imperial affairs,
or both. Of the difficulties raised we can mitigate one only by bringing
another into existence. Endeavouring to minimize them all by reducing
the Irish representation to the lowest point, we either do a gross
injustice to Ireland, by diminishing her control over interests vital to
her, or, by conceding that control, remove the necessity for any
representation at all. Most Irish Unionists would, I believe, prefer
exclusion to retention. One