MR. FORSTER AND THE IRISH DEBATE.
THE general effect of the debate on the situation in Ireland, which has been, of course, the main portion and con- necting-thread of the debate on the Address, will, we believe, be one of relief. Neither the Parnellites nor the Tories who have yet spoken, including Lord Salisbury, have been able to produce a single argument which will tell with the people of this country. They can show, no doubt, that the Government have arrested a great many persons, that much disorder still exists in Ireland, and that the Land Act has not yet produced the pacification of the country ; but then the English people recognised all those things before. They are quite cognisant of the arrests, and intended them when they supported the Coercion Bill ; they not only perceive but exaggerate the disorder existing in Ireland ; and they never expected the Land Act to work like a magical incantation. Their prejudice or conviction as to the ingratitude of Irishmen in politics is far too deep for any such expectation. What they want to know is whether the Govern- ment has used its powers tyrannically ; whether disorder in Ireland is increasing or diminishing ; and whether the Land • Act, even if it be not a panacea, is bringing us nearer to a settle- ment of the permanent agrarian quarrel in Ireland. Upon all those questions, which are the burning questions of the hour, the verdict of all who read the debates, and especially the Parnellite speeches, and Mr. Gladstone's and Mr. Forster's crushing replies, will, we feel certain, be in favour of the Government. And this will arise not only from the arguments of the Ministry, but from the tone of mind dis- played by the Parnellite Members themselves. We doubt if they themselves are aware how rapidly, for all who read the debates, the mask is falling, how completely they are, one by one, revealing, in their speeches, in their ejaculations, and, above all, in their cheers, how full they are of the wish that they could openly hoist the banner of Secession. We are not stating this against them as an accusation. On the contrary, among Irish Revolutionists our respect has always been for the Nationalists, for the men who claim for Ireland independence, and are ready to maintain it in the field, going there themselves. But we state as a fact that the Parnellite Members are more and more ceasing to argue for any legal change, however great, and more and more ready to profess their admiration of conduct which was neither more nor less, legally, than rebellion. Take, for instance, the rapturous cheers when allusion was made to the pikes of 1798. That attitude will, we are confident, of itself be held to justify even more than his other facts Mr. Forster's solid, well-considered statement of the Cabinet's view of its first dirty :—" Before I enter into details, let me say that we have been driven into the course that we took because we believed that otherwise law would have been powerless, industry would have been impossible, liberty would not have existed—for hardly a man in Ireland would have been free to earn his living as he pleased—property would not have been protected, and life would have been in danger. And, more than that, we believed that if we did not 'take action, and strong action, we should be guilty of what amounts to a crime,—of allowing men to be led into such a state of excitement, that probably a civil war would have had to be put down." That is the true, broad justification of all that has occurred,—of the arrests of Members, of the imprisonment of hundreds of persons, and the best proof of its sufficiency is this. If the Par- nellites were reigning in Ireland as the Ministers of an Irish Republic, they would, under the same circumstances, repeat the same sentences, though they would, we believe, if we understand the Irish character, and the Irish proclivity to terrorism as the most effective of weapons, act in a much sterner way. There is no Government in the world, not even that of the United States or Switzerland, which would witness open instigation to defy the law, to set up illegal Courts, and to struggle for the right of Secession—and Mir. Forster proved all these things—without believing that civil war was at hand, and that its duty was, by any suspension of otherwise sacred liberties, to prevent that vast calamity. No argument as to the precise words of persons with such intentions would be listened to for a moment, if only the intentions were proved; and any one who can read Mr. Forster's speech, and doubt that the intentions were proved, and that he carried re- luctance to believe in them to the very verge of weakness, does not know what evidence means.
We say nothing of the moral argument just now, though Mr. Forster showed conclusively that not only had he to pre- vent civil war, but to suppress a practice—" boycotting "- carried on through direct intimidation, which was not only fatal to property, but fatal to the liberty of ordinary farmers, trades- men, and labourers, and pass on to the results of his action. The Irish Members and the Tories maintain that arrests have deepened hatred, without suppressing disorder. The Govern- ment maintain that but for those arrests disorder would have been victorious, that rent could not have been paid, or, in other words, that all Civil Courts would have been paralysed ; and that we must remember not only what the figures are, but what, in the absence of repression, they would have been. Even the positive figures, however, show improvement, for while there were 385 outrages in December, 1880, there were in December, 1881, only 229, in January, 1882, only 189, and in the few days as yet elapsed of this month a further falling-off on that. " Outrage has not ceased, but it has been arrested," while the motive of outrage, the desire to prevent rent being paid, in order that the American-Irish may not carry out their threat of stopping supplies, is dying away, as district after district pays up. With the tremendous agitation still kept. up, with money still pouring in from America to pay the local leaders, and with the lowest classes inflamed by incessant appeals, outrages cannot cease ; but they are- slowly dying away, under a grasp which the Government pledges itself not to relax until the country is once more quiet. Englishmen recognised what Mr. Lincoln meant when,. under far less difficult and complex, though more dangerous circumstances, he said his policy was to " keep on pegging away ;" and they will not fail to perceive that the thought, if not the expression, of the Irish Secretary and the whole- Ministry is identical with this. Lord Salisbury, who cries for " vigour," in a way which suggests that he means military' government, could but do the same thing, although he might do it in a way calculated to leave behind it more terri- ble memories. Mr. Forster never forgets that we have to live with these people for ever, and after all his wretched ex- perience, after just escaping from an attempt to blow out his. eyes, and after hearing some Irish Members jest over that attempt, he can still say :—" It takes a long time before the effects of a bad system can be removed ; but I am not alto- gether without faith in the Irish people. Probably few persons have less reason than I have to speak favourably of much that has occurred in Ireland. But I could not have come so much into contact with its people without finding that, with all their faults and failings, they have many admirable qualities. They have especially that great founda- tion of civic virtue,—a strong love of family and of all social relations ; and I believe that, if we persevere in doing our duty, regardless of fear or favour, not caring for reproach and not looking for immediate reward, we shall have the satisfac- tion of leaving Ireland better than we found it, and also of leav- ing the three kingdoms in a safer and more united condition."
And finally, there is the. operation of the Land Act. Mr.. Forster declares boldly that the farmers are aware of its ad- vantages, that they privately avow themselves sick of the agita- tion, and that they are content with the decisions of the Land Courts. Rent is being paid over an increasing area, and if the intimidation were suppressed would be paid almost everywhere.. As to the Sub-Commissioners, they were chosen with the single intention of obtaining the best men procurable ; and as for their decisions, they only prove that rack-renting was more general in Ireland than Parliament believed. The Irish Secretary had himself known the facts, for he had gathered them during the famine, but Parliament did not. That rack- renting might not be the fault of the landlords. It was rather the fault of circumstances, which for one hundred years had given the landlords the "pull of the market," till a con- stant and undue increase of rent had become inevitable ; but that undue rent was exacted, had become clear. This was the substance of a speech which is a kind of handbook to the exist- ing condition of the Irish question, and which made a deep impression on the House. There will, of course, be infinite conflict over details, but that is the broad view of the situation which we believe the country will accept, not as showing that Ireland is pacified, but as proving that the Government is steadily advancing, through wise means sanctioned by Parlia- ment, towards that pacification.
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