The demand will be made, and the demand will be granted, that in the administration no less than in the House there shall be a system of representation; that England, that Scotland, that Ireland shall each have their due share in the Ministry.  But this state of things must be fatal both to the capacity and to the fairness of the government.  The talent of the Cabinet will be diminished, because the Prime Minister will no longer be able to choose as colleagues the ablest among his supporters without reference to the now irrelevant question whether they represent English, Scottish, or Irish constituencies.  The character of the Executive will be lowered because the Cabinet itself will represent rival interests.  It may seem that I am advocating the special claims of England.  This is not so.  I am arguing on behalf of the efficiency of the government of the United Kingdom.  My argument is one to which Scotsmen and Irishmen should give special heed.  If once we have cabinets and parties based upon sectional divisions, if we have English ministries and English parties as opposed to Scottish ministries or Irish ministries, and Scottish parties and Irish parties, it is not in the long run the most powerful and wealthy portion of what is now the United Kingdom which will suffer.  It is hardly the interest of Scotsmen or Irishmen to pursue a policy which suggests the odious but inevitable cry ‘England for Englishmen.’

Fourthly, as long as Irish members remain at Westminster the English Parliament will never be freed from debates about Irish affairs.

This is a point there is no need to labour.  Unless (what no honest man can openly propose) the 80 or 103 members from Ireland are to be taken from one Irish party only, they must represent different interests and different opinions.  Some few at least will represent the wishes, the complaints, or the wrongs of Ulster.  But if this be so, it is certain that the controversies which divide Ireland will make themselves heard at Westminster.  Can any sane man fancy that if the Dublin Parliament passes an Act for the maintenance of order at Belfast, if the people of Belfast are suspected of intending to resist the Irish government, if Irish landlords, rightly or not, fear unfair treatment at the hands of the Irish Ministry or the Irish Parliament, none of these things will be heard of at Westminster?  The supposition is incredible.  Let Irish members sit at Westminster and Irish affairs will be debated at Westminster, and will often be debated when, under a system of Home Rule, it were much better they should be passed over in silence.  Admit, what is not certain, that Home Rule in Ireland will occasionally withdraw a few Irish questions from discussion in England, it must be remembered that a new crop of Irish questions will arise.  The federal character of the new constitution must produce in one form or another disputes and discussions as to the limits which bound the respective authority of the Imperial and of the Irish Governments.  The Imperial Parliament will, for the first time, be harassed by the question of State rights.  Add to this that at every great political crisis the House of Commons will have before it an inquiry which must produce interminable debates, namely whether a given bill is or is not a measure which concerns only the interest of Great Britain.