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STEPS TO IMPERIAL FEDERATION. certainly do not propose to discuss that thorny Irish question, which is a perennial source of weakness to the Empire, and which can only be satisfactorily settled with the assistance of all political parties in the State; but it is necessary for the proper understanding of our subject to refer to the constitutional objections to Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule proposals. The Home Rule Bill of 1886 excluded Irish representation altogether from the Imperial Parliament. In other words, Ireland was to be taxed for Imperial purposes, without having any voice in the control of the expenditure. If it had become law it would have violated one of the fundamental principles of the British constitution—'there shall be no taxation without representation.' In the second Home Rule Bill the 'in-and-out' plan was proposed; but during the passage of the Bill through the House of Commons this method was shown to be so impracticable that it was decided to allow Irish members to sit in the Imperial Parliament for all purposes. The objections to this course were fatal from the English point of view, because it would have permitted Irishmen, while free to settle their own local affairs in their own way, to interfere in purely British questions.

The modern Home Rule movement, which dates from 1870, and which is associated with the name of Mr. Butt, was directed to securing for an Irish Parliament, &apos;under a federal arrangement, the right of legislating for and regulating all matters relating to the internal affairs of Ireland.' Mr. Chamberlain, in the debate on the first reading of the Home Rule Bill of 1886, used the following remarkable words: 'I shall look for the solution in the direction of the principle of federation &hellip; It appears to me that the advantage 93