We
should have a similar situation in this country if England, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales were all under separate governments, with separate
tariffs and separate policy. In that case the doctrine we should be
preaching to-day would not be Home Rule, but Unionism. For these two
tendencies throughout the world are like a see-saw. Both are required
for efficient government. Both may be carried to excessive and
exaggerated lengths. Our case in regard to the United Kingdom is that
unionism has been carried to excessive lengths, and requires to be
tempered by Home Rule.
For let any Unionist glance round the world outside the British Empire.
He will find that the British do not stand alone in their trust in the
Home Rule principle. Nearly every great Empire in the world rests upon
Home Rule as its basis. Even Russia, perhaps the most centralised of
all, has its provincial councils, known as the Zemstvos, and it was one
of M. Stolypin's most daring actions that he even broke the letter of
the Russian Constitution in order to strengthen the Zemstvos of Eastern
Russia. Finland, too, a province of Russia, possesses a larger form of
local government than is even being demanded by Ireland.
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