So far from being a reversal of the process of constitutional progress which governs British history, it is a fresh and salutary manifestation of it, and constitutional experts are increasingly realizing and proclaiming that it is only by a general extension and speeding-up of this process that the Empire can be maintained and prevented from sharing the fate of all the other great centralized Empires of the past. “Empire,” as a matter of fact, is now a misnomer; the term ought rather to be the “British Association of Free Peoples.” Upon the development of the utmost freedom of each and the inter-relations with each other of the various elements in this great diversity-in-unity the future of the “Empire” depends. This point of view is admirably expressed by Viscount Dunedin, who says: “The secret of the tie that unites the Empire—the rock on which it is built—is the autonomy of local law. And not merely local law, but autonomy of local law making—in other words—legislation.” And he pointed out that the Privy Council had been more solicitous of the principle of legislative autonomy than the Dominions themselves. The Scottish Home Rule demand is, therefore, strictly in accord with the very life-spirit of the Empire, and it is the attempt to assimilate Scottish law and legislation to English and to secure uniformity, instead of permitting the free development of inherent diversity in accordance with distinctive national genius that is anti-Imperial. The opponents of the new Draft Bill cannot have it both ways. The same type of people have objected to all the previous bills on the ground that these would only result in transforming Scotland into a “glorified County Council.” It is the realization of the truth of this that has prompted the greater demand embodied in the present Bill. Without the power of the purse a Scottish Parliament would, indeed, have been a mere glorified County Council, and such a measure would have completed, instead of reversing, the shameful provincialization of our country.