Page:Home rule through federal devolution.djvu/25

 the work of the British Parliament upon subordinate legislative or administrative bodies, the great preponderance of England over the other countries seems to create a difficulty, which some critics deem fatal. Similar disproportions amongst the American States do not, however, disturb the harmony of the confederation; New York State is forty times the size of Rhode Island, and has close on seventeen times the population; and Pennsylvania is nine times as large as Connecticut, and has seven times the population. It is, however, a matter for consideration whether the overweight of England would not be best remedied by making of the northern industrial counties, and of those in the southern half of the country, which are chiefly agricultural, two separate States, and making Greater London also a State of itself. The social and political characteristics of the three provinces thus to be established are sufficiently distinct to justify their separate treatment.

It has been proposed, as a way of getting round the Ulster difficulty without actual partition, that Ireland should be granted a federal constitution within herself, by making the four provinces into four autonomous States (as was long ago suggested by Mr. Chamberlain) under the suzerainty of an Irish Parliament. This seems a clumsy way of endeavouring to evade the difficulty, and one of more than doubtful efficacy; moreover, it would in no way satisfy the legitimate ambition of any section of Home Rulers; however things may go hereafter, they will never willingly abate their claim to an Ireland "one and indivisible." Some such provincial distribution of administrative functions might perhaps be considered in connection with the scheme for a general devolution of powers for the whole United Kingdom.

Some prominent politicians, Home Rulers as well as others, have expressed an opinion that, in an Irish Parliament, the Ulster members, reinforced by Unionists of the south, would hold a dominant position; but such a result is extremely unlikely, especially under the