Lord Hartington farther thought that the grievances inflicted by the
present clumsy mode of registering the voters should be re- moved; that the Land Laws should be simplified so as to render the transfer of land as easy as possible, and so as to enable the smallest landowner to feel that he had the greatest possible interest in improving the land ; and that a good Local Govern- ment Bill should be passed before any sadden revolutions in the platform of the Liberal Party should be discussed. Again, a more careful economy in the management of the public services should be attempted ; but the efforts recently made in this direction had been made chiefly by the Government without any active support from the party which calls itself Liberal, and which is now given up to the agitation of Irish Home-rule. Yet, if Home-rule were ever to be discussed, a new class of questions of the utmost moment would displace those important questions on which in 1885 the Liberals were agreed, and the time of Parliament would be wholly occupied in discriminating between Imperial and local questions, between Imperial and local Legis- latures, and showing how the decisions of the local Parliaments were to be reconciled with the decisions of the Imperial Parlia- ment. In Lord Hartington's belief, while the Home-rule measure advocated would drive away a great deal of capital and credit from Ireland, it would not at all fulfil the aspirations of the Nationalist Party by whom the demand for Home-rule is chiefly urged. A resolution expressing unabated confidence in Lord Harlington was almost unanimously carried.
Previous page
