present extended franchise: we have seen that in the recent election, except for the two members for Dublin University, only one Unionist was returned outside of Ulster. Moreover, there are many southern Unionists who would by no means relish the domination of a body of typical Ulster politicians.
The suggestion of a Provincial Grand Committee of the Irish House is worthy of consideration. It ought to be a sufficient guarantee of the rights and liberties of Ulster, and would be far more workable than any device for the exclusion of the six counties can be made; and there seems no ground on which it could reasonably be refused by Nationalists; the difficulty is that there is not, and never has been, any spirit of compromise amongst Irish parties.
If Major Wood's devolution proposals are to be practically considered, the suggestion that the six counties of Ulster—if not the whole province—might be made a State of the Federation ought not to be passed over without full examination. The State thus created would contain 5,238 square miles, with a population, by the last census, of 1,250,531. It would be larger than Connecticut, Delaware, or Rhode Island, and would exceed in population any of the six New England States, except Massachusetts. Unless we are to accept the belief that the congenital incompatibility between Ulster and the rest of Ireland can never, by any means, be overcome, one or other of the methods referred to ought to afford a ground-work for mutual accommodation.
In planning a system of separate government for Ireland, there seems no good purpose to be served by having two separate Chambers. If the federal scheme be adopted, the existing dual legislature would rightly be perpetuated in the Central Parliament, in which, disencumbered by devolution on the subordinate States of most of the domestic and internal affairs of the Kingdom, the House of Lords would still have a very important function to perform in connection with imperial and
