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deny to the minority the right to be represented in accordance with its numbers—a right which is recognized as a matter of course in every Committee of the Imperial Parliament. The London County Council is nearer to a Home Rule Parliament than any other body that exists in this country. It has to govern a population as large as that of Ireland, and infinitely more wealthy. Its functions are strictly limited by Act of Parliament, and it has an immensity of heavy practical work to perform. But from the very first moment of its existence the one preoccupation of the inspiring genius of the Star has been to gerrymander the Council, to evade an appeal to the constituencies, and to control everything, not from the point of view of the actual administrative work that is to be done, but in order to use the privileges already conceded to extort more. If this can be done in London, where the people are undisciplined by wirepullers, and distrustful of electioneerers, what security will the Irish minority have of fair play in a Dublin Parliament, managed as it would be by a caucus that is as homogeneous as a patent screw, and which keeps step like a Macedonian phalanx? The refusal of the majority to treat the minority with some regard to the elementary principles of justice and fair play is the most potent argument against Home Rule for Ireland that has reinforced the failing ranks of the Unionists for many a long day."—Pall Mall Gazette, February 6th, 1889.
