The weaker the British Government, the greater the weight of the Irish representatives.  But if the English Cabinet represents a minority of the British people, and are kept in office only by the votes of their Irish allies, then the influence of the Irish representatives and the weakness of the English Government will have reached its extreme point.  The effect therefore of the arrangement which brings Irish members to Westminster is to place the administration of English affairs in the hands of the party, whichever it be, that does not represent the wishes of the English people.  This master stroke of Gladstonian astuteness ensures that Radicals shall be in office when the opinion of England is Conservative, and that Conservatives shall be in power when English opinion tends towards Radicalism.

Secondly.  The retention of the Irish members breaks up our whole system of Cabinet government.  This system has some inherent defects, but it cannot work at all with any benefit to the country unless the Cabinet can depend on the support of a permanent majority.  The result of what has happily been described as the ‘in-and-out plan,’ that is the scheme for allowing Irish members to vote on some subjects and not on others, will be the constitution of two majorities, and it is more than possible that the one majority may belong to one party and the other majority to another.  Look at the effect on the transaction of public affairs.  The Irish members and the English Liberals combined may put in office a Liberal Cabinet.  On English matters, e.g. the question of Disestablishment, or of Home Rule for Wales, the British majority consisting of British members of Parliament only may constantly defeat the Gladstonian Cabinet, and thus force into office a Conservative Cabinet which could command a majority on all subjects of purely British interest, but would always be in a minority on all matters of Imperial policy, e.g. on the conduct of foreign affairs.  Which Cabinet would have a right to retain power?  The sole answer is—­neither.  The proposed plan, in short, undermines our whole scheme of government.

Thirdly.  The Irish members who are now simply Irish members of the Imperial Parliament will be transformed into a very different thing—­an Irish delegation.  The importance of this change cannot be over-rated.  The essential merit of our present system of government is that the Executive, no less than the Parliament of the United Kingdom, represents the country as a whole.  Our Premier may be a Scotsman, but we know of no such thing as a Scottish Premier.  Englishmen may form the majority of the Cabinet, but we have never had an English Cabinet as contrasted with a Scottish or an Irish Cabinet.  It has never been contended, hardly has it been hinted, that a Ministry ought to be made up of members taken in certain proportions from each division of the kingdom.  But from the moment that sectional representation, and with it open advocacy of sectional interests, is introduced into the House of Commons, there will arise the necessity for the formation of sectional Cabinets.