{ 15 1]
‘To talk of such a compact as the disruption of the
Empire is the sheerest absurdity. The Empire gains
by Home Rule the freely tendered loyalty of the one
country whose loyalty is most essential, and whose
disloyalty has been heretofore most dangerous to its
stability.
While Home Rule commends itself to England as
a pledge of Ireland’s loyalty to the Empire, to Ireland
it offers far greater advantages than the impossible
policy of Repeal. Grattan's Parliament was valuable
solely because it was native and resident. The
Home Rule Parliament will be both, but it will
be, moreover, what Grattan’s Parliament never was,
fully representative of the people. Above all and
beyond all, under Home Rule there will be for the
first time an Irish Executive responsible to Parlia-
ment, and, therefore, responsible to the people.
Under Grattan’s Parliament an alien Executive by
systematic corruption controlled the Irish House of
Commons ; under Home Rule the Irish House of
Commons will control a native Executive.
Grattan’s Parliament, nominally independent, was
completely subservient to the Executive that cor-
rupted it. The Home Rule Parliament will, so far as
Irish affairs are concerned, be practically supreme.