[ 10] 
A Constitutional Settlement. 
7fHE measure of Home Rule already embodied 
I in Act of Parliament satisfies the national 
aspirations of the vast majority of Irishmen. 
A lesser measure was accepted by Mr. Parnell, 
the acknowledged spokesman of the Irish Nation. 
Amendment and improvement may be called for, but 
in principle the Act suffices. An ingenious agree- 
ment has been developed by the irreconcilable 
Unionists, the conditional rebels of the North who 
were themselves responsible for the Sinn Fein rising in 
Dublin. “The denial of Ireland’s legitimate demand 
for Home Rule,” they admit, “has created disaffection 
in Ireland, therefore,” they argue, “ Home Rule must 
still be denied till disaffection has disappeared.” 
Every day that Home Rule is denied must 
strengthen and extend the influence of militant 
Sinn Feiners. The coercion of the Ulster minority 
is declared to be “unthinkable.” Is it proposed to 
perpetually coerce a disaffected majority in Ireland? 
The small rump of the ascendancy faction may rejoice 
in the prospect, but decent Irishmen of all parties 
would deplore it, and such a policy would disgrace 
the Empire in the eyes of the whole civilised world 
pledged to the liberation of small nations. 
The Sinn Fein movement when it was first started 
some years ago, consisted of a number of peaceably- 
disposed persons whose policy, “Irish for the Irish,” 
found expression in the encouragement of Irish 
manufacture and of the Gaelic Language. The denial 
of Home Rule in deference to the threats of armed 
resistance by a small minority in Ulster was solely 
responsible for militant Sinn Fein,