Lord Hartington suggests as an alternative plan that statu- tory
bodies, strictly controlled by Parliament, should manage strictly local affairs, and believes that if the majority of the United Kingdom declare that they will concede no more, the Irish people will not be persuaded to continue a hopeless and unnecessary contest. Mr. Gladstone's scheme is no alternative to coercion, for it is certain that without coercion the Pro- testants of Ulster would not submit, and, indeed, coercion is more fairly attributed to the National League. " It is the earnest desire and hope of every section of the Liberal Party that in Ireland and all other parts of her Majesty's dominions, the law may be enforced by the same methods and the same institutions. But the enforcement of a just law is the duty of Government." Resistance to such a law cannot be justified ; and if it is asked how England and Scotland are to be governed, the reply is clear :— " The full and equal representation in Parliament which has been freely conceded to the Irish people, must be conditional on their exercise of these privileges in a manner compatible with the efficiency, the dignity, and even the existence of Parliamentary institutions. A manifest determination to destroy and to cripple those institutions would be as clearly rebellion against our Constitution as open resistance to the Crown ; and it would be our duty to defend the authority of Parliament against internal attacks, as our predecessors have defended it from the external aggressions of arbitrary power." That last sentence will create more sympathy for Lord Harting- ton than all the rest of his address.
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