The Progress of the World. 



461 



Checks 

 and 



The Irish Parliament may not 

 meddle with the Crown in ihf 

 making of peace or war, with the 

 Safeguards. j^^^y ^j. ^^^^.^ ^-^^^ dignities and 



honours, treaties, or treason, with 

 amendment of the Home Rule Act, or with the right 

 of appeal to the Privy Council on all Irish Acts or 

 with Irish land purchase. It may not enact privilege 

 or disability, endowment or deprivation for any form 

 of religion, or make any religious belief or ceremony 

 necessary to the validity of marriage. Its Acts are 

 further subject to veto or postponement by the Imperial 

 Executive (the King and Cabinet) or by Imperial 

 Parliament. They can also be nullified or overridden by 

 the Imperial Parliament. Disputes may be sent first to 

 the Irish Court of Appeal, second to the Privy Council. 

 To sa)' that these provisions do not 

 preclude endless possibilities of 



What About Ulster? r. . . ^ _ ■,• • ,, , 



fnctioi IS to utter a criticism that 



applies to any political system in 

 this workaday world. Reliance must always be placed 

 on some lubrication of goodwill and common sense. 

 Without these the best system on earth would soon 

 prove unworkable. But the Irish people are not " die- 

 hard Peers," or cultivators of a fine Milneresque dis- 

 regard of consequences. They work well in the Colonial 

 and American Governments. But Ulster ? Is not 

 Ulster bent on causing friction, to use the mildest 

 word ? Will she not make Home Rule unworkable ? 

 Merely to sneer at " Ulsteria " is no answer to these 

 questions. Liberal critics will perhaps allow us to 

 suggest that ridicule is no argument. To laugh at a 

 pugnacious man may compel him to fight ; to treat 

 him with respect may help him to .sober down and 

 forget his anger. The first thing to point out is that 

 even if Ulster resolved to be treated as a separate unit, 

 a single by-election might turn her vote as a province 

 into one for Home Rule. At present Ulster sends 

 thirty-five .Members to Westminster — seventeen for 

 Home Rule, eighteen against. One-half of the province 

 has declared for Home Rule. The business men of 

 Belfast, if they are not too much held up to ridicule, 

 will begin to see that for one-half of one out of the 

 four provinces to claim to nullify the constitutionally- 

 expressed purpose of the three and a half provinces is 

 not business. Then, too, we have reason to e.\pect that 

 the first nominees to the Senate will consist of the 

 llower of the busines-- men. the thinkers and flesigners 

 who belong to the Northern province ; and Ulster may 

 find herself in a position of advantage in the Upper 

 House. In any case. th<' title and place of .Senator will 

 have a soothing effect upon the nerves of some leading 



men (and of their ladies) who are now panic-stricken 

 at the thought of Home Rule. And the feeling for the 

 solidarity of Laliour which has lieen increasing during 

 the last twenty years has helped to bring Protestant 

 and Catholic working-men of Belfast into more effective 

 accord. If an honest attempt is made to have industrial 

 Ireland well represented in the new Senate, Ulster will 

 probably settle down. The vision of this better time 

 irradiated Mr. Churchill's brilliant speech on the 

 second reading. It was certainly one of the most 

 persuasive pleas ever addressed to political opponents. 

 It is bound to have an effect on Ulster. 



As Irish nationality is recognised 



Welsh by the Home Rule Bill, so in 



Disestablishment, another way the distinctive 



nationality of Wales is involved 

 by the Welsh Disestablishment Bill which Mr. McKenna 

 introduced on the historic 23rd of April. The Home 

 Secretary rested his case chiefly on the sustained 

 unanimity of the national demand. The provisions of. 

 the Bill are gradual -in operation, and by no means 

 drastic in ultimate effect. The income of the Welsh 

 dioceses in 1906 was £556,000. Of this sum the larger 

 part, £296,000, comes from voluntary contributions, 

 and is untouched by the Bill. Of the remaining 

 £260,000, which comes from endowments, the Bill 

 would take away £172,500, leaving £87,500. 



So that the total income of the 



Only 31 per cent. ^^ elsii Cluirch would eventually 



Reduction. be reduced from £556,000 to 



£383,500 — a diminution of about 

 31 per cent. But out of the endowments now being 

 taken over by the State every existing incumbent will 

 continue to receive his present stipend. Mr. McKenna 

 reckons that forty years will pass before these interests 

 are extinguished, so that the disestablished Church will 

 have more than a generation in which to adapt itself to 

 altered circumstances. If it adds to its voluntary con- 

 tributions enough to raise its income each year i per 

 cent, above the previous year, it will in forty years 

 have more than made good the loss from disestablish, 

 menl. Thus reduced to proper |)roporl ions the change 

 should not be considered deadiv to any vigorous Church. 

 Already the income from voluntary sources is, as has 

 been shown, considerably greater than that from 

 endowments ; and the stimulus of disendowment will 

 surel\' produce more than i per cent, increase per 

 annum. The disestablished Church will have power to 

 set up a representative body which may be incor- 

 porated under charter. To this body the Welsh Com- 

 missioners appointed for the [)iir|)ose will transfer 

 the luur cathedrals and the [lalaces, all the churches 



