adapted to whet the appetite of the Irish for nationality, without supplying them with any portion of the real article.  It would supply no basis on which a system of agrarian reform could be founded, as it would be impossible to leave the determination of a local question, which is a unit in its dangers and its difficulties, to four different Legislatures; above all, the hinge on which the question turns—­the sufficiency of the security for the British taxpayer—­could not be afforded by provincial resources.  Indeed, no alternative for the Land Bill of 1886 has been suggested which does not err in one of the following points:  either it pledges English credit on insufficient security, or it requires the landowners to accept Irish debentures or some form of Irish paper money at par; in other words, it makes English taxes a fund for relieving Irish landlords, or else it compels the Irish landowner, if he sells at all, to sell at an inadequate price.  Before parting with Canada, it may be worth while noticing that another, and more feasible, alternative is to imitate more closely the Canadian Constitution, and to vest the central or Dominion powers in a central Legislature in Dublin, parcelling out the provincial powers, as they have been called, amongst several provincial Legislatures.  This scheme might be made available as a means of protecting Ulster from the supposed danger of undue interference from the Central Government, and for making, possibly, other diversities in the local administration of various parts of Ireland in order to meet special local exigencies.

A leading writer among the dissentient Liberals has intimated that one of two forms of representative colonial government might be imposed on Ireland—­either the form in which the executive is conducted by colonial officials, or the form of the great irresponsible colonies.  The first of these forms is open to the objection, that it perpetuates those struggles between English executive measures and Irish opinion which has made Ireland for centuries ungovernable, and led to the establishment of the union and destruction of Irish independence in 1800; the second proposal would destroy the fiscal unity of the empire—­leave the agrarian feud unextinguished, and aggravate the objections which have been urged against the Home Rule Bill of 1886.  A question still remains, in relation to the form of the Home Rule Bill of 1886, which would not have deserved attention but for the prominence given to it in some of the discussions upon the subject.  The Bill of 1886 provides “that the Legislature may make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland,” but subjects their power to numerous exceptions and restrictions.  The Act establishing the Dominion of Canada enumerates various matters in respect of which the Legislature of Canada is to have exclusive power, but prefaces the enumeration with a clause “that the Dominion Legislature may make laws for the peace, order, and good government