TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE RUMOURS CONCERNING LIBERAL REUNION.
THEpublic would do well to profit by the remark attributed to Mr. Chamberlain in the Unionist Conference of Tuesday evening,—that all the evening papers tell us as to that which is going on amongst the Unionist Party is not true. Indeed, we have not often known scares so baseless as those got up on the strength of such a speech as that delivered at the Devonshire Club by Sir George Trevelyan on Wednesday week,—though the only important features of the authorised report were the impatience and distrust of the weakness of the Government in Ireland which the former Irish Secretary expressed, and his avowal of a belief that it would take a reunited Liberal Party to settle the question in any solid way. That is a very pardonable outburst of impatience on the part of a confessed idolater of the Liberal Party, who had himself been the means of enforcing the law in Ireland better than it has been enforced lately. But those who cheered Sir George Trevelyan, were almost to a man pledged not to use the very means which he and Lord Spencer used for the enforcement of the law in Ireland ; and there is something so grotesque in the position of Home-rulers who while they protest passionately against any strengthening of the Irish Criminal Law before the granting of Home-rale, cheer an attack on the Government for not following Sir George Trevelyan's and Lord Spencer's example, that any shrewd Home-ruler anxious to ascertain the truth as to the supposed reunion of the Liberals, should, we think, have been warned by this exhibition of inconsistent emotion that the prospects of reunion are not quite as good as Sir George Trevelyan in his eager loyalty to the Liberal Party,and Sir William Harcourt in his eagerness to make theLiberalparty loyal to himself, are disposed to hope. Such a Home-ruler might fairly ask himself whether Sir George Trevelyan had the least chance of convincing Mr. Gladstone and Sir William Harcourt that the first thing to do is vigorously" to enforce the law against the law-breakers "in Ireland,—which is what Sir George Trevelyan denounces the present Government for failing to do, forgetting that, partly by the fault of the Liberals, and partly by the fault of the Tories, the Criminal Law in Ireland as it stands now is not so easy to enforce as it was when Lord Spencer and Sir George Trevelyan had the facilities of the Irish Crimes Act at their disposal. Sir William Harcourt, at all events, in his speech at the Hotel Maropole on Wednesday, will leave an inquiring Home-ruler in no kind of doubt as to his own intentions in this matter. He is very ready to mock at the Govern. ment for its weakness ; but nothing will incline him to make it stronger. And we will venture to say that of the Gladstonians who were delighted to find Sir George Trevelyan so sanguine as to the prospects of reunion, not one would have cheered him at all if he had confined himself to warning the party of progress, as he did warn them, against the danger of becoming "extreme and sectional." Their drift and his drift are quite opposite. They are very willing to cheer his reproaches to the Government for its weakness in Ireland ; but they would not have been willing to cheer him at all if he had asked them, —as most of his brother-Unionists certainly are willing and eager to ask them,—to place the present Government in as good a position for suppressing law-breakers as Sir George Trevelyan occupied as Irish Secretary. The dream that the great body of the Unionists,—of Lord Hartington's followers, and we will add, of Mr. Chamberlain's followers,—are faint-hearted enough to deprecate the granting of these larger powers, is a fiction, a fancy, a hope of the unscrupulous faction who, prompted partly by Russian sympathies and partly by a genuine delight in political sensation, wish to break up the Government at any price. Never were the great bulk of the Unionists,—of course, we except Mr. Winterbotham and those who think with him on the one side, and Lord Randolph Churchill and those who think with him on the other side,— more determined than they are to support the Government in a good and reasonable Crimes Act. There are probably at least fifty or fifty-five Liberal Unionists who stand perfectly firm on this subject. We do not believe that there are half-a- dozen Conservatives who will follow Lord Randolph. And from these data our readers may conclude that the sanguine hope of turning out the Government on the Irish Criminal Procedure Act is but the baseless fabric of a vision.
There are some fixed points in the situation by which grave politicians may easily measure the prospect or no-prospect of a speedy dissolution of the Unionist Party. In the first place, Mr. Goschen joined the Government on Lord Hartington's invitation ; and Lord Hartington, who never yet broke faith with any man, is bound to support the Government to which he thus contributed one of his firmest allies, so long as that Government goes straight forward in the path of restoring order in Ireland without unnecessary severity or unnecessary delay. That is the first point. Before the Unionist Party can be broken up, the Government must have failed, and failed con- spicuously, in some one of the conditions on which Lord Hartington lent them his support.
Then there is another point which, though not so indis- putable as this, is really, as all well-informed politicians know, a characteristic feature of the present situation. Mr. Chamber- lain has no intention of breaking with Lord Hartington. They have held firmly together all through this difficult crisis, and they will hold firmly together in relation to the suppression of Irish crime. There is no stronger advocate for restoring the authority of the law in Ireland before we attempt remedial measures than Mr. Chamberlain, not even Lord Hartington himself. It may be true,—certainly we should not venture to deny it,—that Mr. Chamberlain is disposed to be more easily satisfied in the matter of security for the authority of the- Imperial Parliament over Ireland than we should be,—we may even hope than Lord Hartington would be. Bat whether Mr. Chamberlain is or is not too sanguine as to the feasibility of an Irish Constitution modelled on the Canadian type, Mr.. Chamberlain is as explicit and inflexible as the strongest of the Unionists on the necessity of asserting the authority of the law in Ireland first, and applying remedial measures afterwards..
It follows from what we have said, that Sir William Har- court and his allies in the Press who are so eagerly speculating on the prospect of a defeat of the Government, will have to wait for their opportunity at least until the constructive measures for the improvement of the Land Law and the ad- ministration of local affairs in Ireland come up, and that till then all these dreams of breaking up the Unionist Party will prove the mere echoes of eager wishes. When the reconstruc- tive issues arise, there may be doubtless serious divisions. That is always the difficult crisis. But we cannot help hoping that even when the reconstructive stage of the Irish Question is- upon us, as we heartily hope it soon may be, the Unionists may still see their way to co-operate with the Government at least so far as the agrarian settlement goes. And if that is possible,—and. we earnestly hope that it may be possible,—we are quite sure that no true Unionist will press on the ultimate question of the future form of government in Ireland till that all-important reform is achieved. Nothing would give us better hope for Ireland than the co-operation of Conservatives and Liberal' Unionists in a great agrarian settlement, and though we are well aware that that will be a much more difficult matter than their co-operation for the purposes of reforming Irish criminal. procedure, we have very strong hopes that it will be achieved- Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain are co-operating with a vigour and earnestness that deserve all praise, and they are, we believe, both of them aware that the co-operation of the Government is quite as necessary to them, as their co- operation is necessary to the Government. When the reform of criminal procedure in Ireland is achieved, and the permanent settlement of the agrarian question is achieved,—then, no doubt, will come a crisis of great difficulty. But it is of no use at all in politics to try to look too far forward. The com- bination which placed this Government in power will have done as much as could be reasonably expected, if it re-estab- lishes order in Ireland on a permanent basis, and not on so sandy a foundation as a Crimes Act limited to three years. If it can do more than this, and achieve even a tolerable solution of the agrarian problem, it will have answered its purpose better than most temporary instruments in this imperfect world do. And in the meantime, let those who try, day after day, to bring about the political deluge by circulating the wildest and most baseless rumours, be assured that wild and baseless rumours will discredit nobody except those who circulate them, but will discredit them very seriously indeed.
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