FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
bottom of much of the objection to Home Rule, and this objection can only be removed by dealing with the remainder of the Irish landlords by land purchase. The exact cost of such a measure has not yet been determined. Mr. T. W. Russell has placed the cost at 120,000,000l. The payments under the existing Land Purchase Acts have been, as a rule, punctually met, and this constitutes a reasonable ground for believing that the principal and interest would be as punctually repaid under a larger scheme. The compulsory principle for which Mr. Russell contends is open to grave objection, but to get rid once for all of the Irish land question, to remove one of the chief objections, if not the main objection, to the grant of self-government to Ireland, and to make of Irishmen loyal and contented citizens of the British Empire, would be worth the addition of 120,000,000l. to the National Debt, and would certainly justify the risk of advancing such a sum under a land purchase scheme.
Another objection that may be urged against the revival of Home Rule at the present time is that neither in Scotland, Wales, nor England does opinion stand where it did six years ago. The election of last year was fought on other issues. With some exceptions the question did not figure prominently in election addresses. Many candidates ignored it altogether. Hence the assertion in some quarters that Home Rule is dead. While it is most unlikely that Mr. Gladstone's proposals for dealing with Ireland alone will ever be revived, the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Chamberlain made it very clear to the Nonconformist Unionist Association that in their opinion Home Rule was not dead, but dormant. Of Scotland and Wales this is
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