MR. JOHN MORLEY AT NEWCASTLE.
WE have no doubt that Mr. John Morley will have been returned by a great majority before the present issue of this journal can be in our readers' hands ; and profoundly as we believe that he is entering on a hopeless experiment which can result in nothing but fresh danger to the Empire, we are bound to recognise the fact that the constituencies have made up their minds to hear Mr. Gladstone's proposals for Ireland, and to give them the most mature consideration, whether they ultimately adopt them or not. That being so, the opposition to Mr. Morley seems to us rather a waste of power. A leader in Mr. Gladstone's great position is, we think, entitled to be heard and judged by the deliberate proposals he makes to Parliament. Indeed, if it were conceivable that half Mr. Morley's good intentions could be effectually carried out, we might not find so much to regret and condemn in the designs of the Government. It is, perhaps, unreasonable to expect that popular opinion should see beforehand how alarmingly flimsy are the promises by which Mr. Morley hopes to secure the good- will of the English part of his constituency for the new policy. It is only when the details of the proposed reconstruction are before them that it will be possible to point this out with effect, and till then we think that it would be graceful for all Liberals, however much they may sympathise with Lord Hart- ington and Sir Henry James, to refrain from opposition and to await the publication of the matured plans of the Govern- ment. Nevertheless, journalists are not bound to pretend to anticipate the impossible ; and therefore, though they may concede that it would have been wiser not to contest the seats of Mr. Charles Russell and Mr. John Morley, they are bound to show how shadowy are their promises and how dangerous their surrender.
Mr. Morley states that he should regard Separation as " a disgrace to England and a disaster to Ireland ;" that he has no belief in it, because Ireland would never wish to deprive herself of the English market for her products ; that no responsible Government would ever think of removing the garrison of from 20,000 to 30,000 men in Ireland ; and that he will never be a party to "placing a minority and the property of a minority at the mercy of a majority, in case they should be inclined to deal lawlessly with them." These re- marks are the gilding of Mr. Morley's policy. The substance of it is contained in the remark that " those who know most of the state of Ireland, those who are best acquainted with the inner forces and the secret currents of opinion and sentiment in Ireland, are most of all persuaded that to attempt to govern Ireland contrary to, and regard- less of, the voice and wishes of the population of Ireland, is to load ourselves with troubles compared with which any troubles we have had since the Act of Union are hardly worth mentioning." Well, that may be perfectly true ; but as most of the troubles which we have had since the Act of Union have arisen from the attempt to govern Ireland contrary to, and regardless of, the voice and wishes of the population, and as the population has not increased, but enormously diminished, since the Union, we cannot understand why the difficulty of
thwarting Irish wishes should be about to take an enormous expansion, unless the true account of the matter be this,— not that Irish power has grown suddenly greater, but that English nerve has grown suddenly less. The truth is, that never has the attempt to consult all the reasonable wishes of the Irish people been at all earnest till within the last seventeen years ; and yet, so far as we can judge of the secret of our failure, that failure has arisen far less from the inade- quacy of our measures, than from the sudden dilating of the Irish belief that there is no limit to the squeezability of English statesmen.
However, what we wish to draw attention to just now is this,—that if Mr. Morley thinks Separation "a disgrace to England and a disaster to Ireland ;" if he is prepared to
resist by the military force we have and are to keep in Ire- land, every attempt at Separation ; if he is convinced that Ireland has no wish even to risk losing the English market for her products ; and if he is determined, under all circum- stances, to protect the minority in its reasonable liberties and rights, we wish he could have suggested to us how all these resolves are to be reconciled with that other resolve of his, to govern Ireland with the free consent of her population. So far as the evidence goes, if we govern Ireland with the free consent of her population, we shall govern her as the National League governs her, for that is, by the admission of every one, the true governing power in Ireland now. Well, how does the National League govern her Does the National League regard the loss of the English market as a great mis- fortune ? Apparently not, since Mr. Parnell, who is at the head of that League, as of everything else popular in Ireland, demands the power to create a Protective tariff, which could not but endanger the command of the English market by Ireland. Does the National League insist on protecting the liberty and property of the minority ? On the contrary, it is established expressly to fetter the liberty of the minority, and to endanger or destroy their property. Does the National League regard the separation of Great Britain from Ireland as an event that would be "a disgrace to England and a disaster to Ireland"? We have every reason to believe that it would accept the first part of that phrase and exult over it, and reject the second on the ground that nothing which involved disgrace to England could be anything but fortunate for Ireland. How is Mr. Morley to take guarantees that Irishmen will govern themselves, if we acquiesce in that government, in a totally different manner from that in which they now govern themselves against our will ? Suppose the minority protected by any guarantees you like,—say, by an Irish Senate which would refuse to pass con- fiscating measures of any kind. What is to prevent the Irish from doing without the consent of their own Parlia- ment then,—the Executive Government being in their hands, —just what they do now without the consent of our Parlia- ment,—the Executive Government not being in their hands?' Experience has shown amply that the Irish rather like con- spiring against a Legislature which they cannot control, and that they conspire with very great effect. Will not the Executive Government and people in combination do this even more effectually than the people do it now, with an Executive Government firmly opposed to them ? Then, again, what con- ceivable guarantees can be enforced by this country against an Irish Legislature which will not irritate Irish pride to the last degree ; and not only irritate Irish pride, but irritate an Irish pride enormously inflamed and exalted by the victory which Mr. Parnell hopes to win over us, and which, if Mr. John Morley's policy succeeds, he will win I We have done nothing, even in the way of strict justice to Ireland, which has not at once raised the Irish demands on us a hundred per cent. If we are to go out of the road of strict justice, and to make what is confessedly an act of surrender to Irish ideas with which we in Great Britain totally disagree, and are known totally to disagree, is it reasonable, is it quite sane, to expect that the Irish will suddenly fall into our arms and cast the ruling passion of the last twenty years,—hatred
to England,—to the winds ? We submit that no less sane expectation was ever entertained, that what we ought gravely and sadly to expect is this,—that the more we concede to Ireland beyond the claims of strict justice,—as impartial states- men interpret strict justice,—the more powerful will be the arms with which we shall arm them against ourselves, and the more passionate their resolve to use them.
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