"
It should be sufficiently clear from the foregoing analysis that the
vague and confused claim that the success of British Colonial policy is
an argument for the Home Rule Bill has no shadow of justification. It
has been shown, first of all, that the factor of success in our Colonial
policy was not the factor of separatism implied in Home Rule, but the
factor of responsible government already secured for Ireland by the
Union. It has been shown, secondly, that the experience of the Colonies
since the establishment of responsible government has in every case
forced union upon them, and union in the closest form which the facts of
trade and geography permitted of. Colonial experience is thus no
argument even for a federal scheme of "Home Rule all round," if such a
scheme could possibly result from an Irish Home Rule Bill, which it
cannot. The disadvantages and dangers of the contrary policy of disunion
have been shown, in their least noxious form in the case of
Newfoundland, which has simply remained outside the adjoining Dominion,
and in their deadliest form in the case of the Transvaal, where "Home
Rule" was given in 1881, as it would be given to Ireland to-day, if the
Government succeeded, not from conviction and whole-heartedly, but as a
mean-spirited concession, made to save trouble, and under the most
disingenuous and least workable provisions.
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