TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE " HALLOWED " SUPREMACY.
IT certainly was not unnatural for Mr. Balfour to lay a good deal of ironical emphasis on Mr. Gladstone's religious reverence for the " hallowed " doctrine of supremacy. The sneer, like most sneers, would have been better suppressed ; but it touched the very centre and kernel of the difference between the two parties. For night after night, the Government had been professing their abstract devotion to the idea of the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament ; and yet, for night after night, they had been resisting every change which seemed to imply any practical intention of enforcing the supremacy in con- crete cases. The words " subordinate" and "delegated," as applied to the Legislature in Dublin, had been peremp- torily refused. Mr. Victor Cavendish's invitation to enumerate the subjects referred to the Dublin Legislature had been declined, and it was not till it became evident that some of Mr. Gladstone's own followers were resenting his reluctance to come to a clear understanding as to what his intentions really were, that he seized the opportunity of Sir Henry James's amendment to assent to the declaration that nothing in the new measure should in any way diminish the power of the Imperial Parlia- ment of Westminster to control the course of any matter or thing in Ireland, notwithstanding any action of the Irish Legislature to the contrary. Even then Mr. Gladstone showed the utmost anxiety to postpone the clause, and to attenuate its practical effect on the structure of the Bill. Mr. Morley declared that the Bill was "saturated with supremacy ; " but the supremacy with which it was saturated was certainly a wholly theoretic supremacy,—a supremacy which was, as Mr. Balfour said, to be all the more religiously reserved that it was never to be actually used. Like clothes reserved for truly great occasions, it was never, except in the very last resort, to be donned. Yet this is just the critical question in the whole controversy. At present, the Imperial Parliament is the only Parliament for Ireland, and the Imperial Executive the only Executive. Mr. Gladstone's great object is to confine that Imperial Parliament to great and exceptional exercises of authority in Ireland, which he wants to make as rare as possible; and also he desires to furnish the Imperial Parliament with as inadequate opportunities of executive action as it is possible to persuade the House of Commons to be satisfied with. The Unionist Party are not content with this, nor are Mr. Gladstone's own English followers. He has been pressed again and again to make it clear when this legislative authority is to be used and how it is to be enforced, and he has always taken refuge in the analogy of our legislative interference with the Colonies, which, as everybody knows, means practically nothing but delay, and very seldom even as much as that. Certainly it never means a final and peremptory interference. The Unionists are determined that the English people shall recognise this governing concep- tion of Mr. Gladstone's, for they believe,—and we think they rightly believe,—that it will be fatal to his measure. Mr. Balfour put it frankly that, even if an Irish Legis- lature is to be established at all,—which, of course, he utterly disapproves,—at least the supreme power at West- minster must be a substantial and working power, used whenever it is wanted, and not kept, like the veto over Colonial Bills, for ornamental rather than practical use. There are two most urgent reasons for this. In the first place, Ireland is so close to us as to be dangerous to us if she is not really to be governed from the centre, when- ever the central authority thinks it right to speak. In the next place, Ireland is divided into two political sections, one of which is heartily loyal to the United Kingdom and is not at all loyal to the Irish majority,—and that renders it absolutely necessary to keep the reins firmly in the hands of the supreme power. Unless the supreme power is to mean something far more vigorous and significant than it means in reference to the self-governing Colonies, the Union will really be repealed, and we shall have all the old troubles repeated. This is just where Mr. Gladstone refuses to be brought to book. He will not admit that habitual and practical check-strings pulled from Westminster will ever be needed. He knows that the mere suggestion of those check-strings infuriates his Irish allies, and yet that his English followers believe that they will be necessary, and must be strong. Here is the very heart of the con- troversy. And, up to the present time, Mr. Gladstone has apparently held that the difficulty could be better evaded than plainly met. He is perfectly aware that the Unionists. will immensely profit by bringing this point to the front. They will show that nothing is gained after all by this. attempt at delegating powers which we shall constantly have to overrule. The Irish Party will be more irritated. by interferences from Westminster than they are now by being defeated frankly in a Parliament in which they have equal rights with all the other Members. And the English Moderates will find that, instead of getting rid of the in- terminable Irish question, they will have only brought it upon them in tenfold force and complexity.
Nothing astonishes us more than this obstinate convic- tion in Mr. Gladstone's and Mr. Morley's minds, that if only an Irish Parliament could be got to work, we should probably have no further trouble than we have had with the Colonies, and should be able to throw the reins as lightly on the shoulders of the (nominally) subordinate Legisla- ture and Executive. The mere fact that we are to keep the Irish representatives at Westminster, whether 80 or 103 strong, militates in the most potent way against this view of the case. If we had Colonial representatives of our great Colonies assembled in force at Westminster, for the very purpose of discussing the interests of the Colonies there, we should no more be able to keep out of Colonial controversies than we are now able to keep out of Scotch and Welsh controversies. It seems to us that Mr. Glad- stone and Mr. Morley knew this when they so reluctantly yielded to the demand for Irish representation at Westminster. When they conceded that, they might just as well have thrown up the cards altogether,. for the whole strength of their position was surrendered. They then made the perpetual renewal of the Irish controversy in Parliament absolutely certain ; and they made it certain that England would not gain but lose by the existence of the new Legislature. Yet they were unable to resist the force of the demand for that fatal. concession, and also unable to see that it was fatal, and that the present system is far simpler and better than the complications into which they were so blindly rushing_ If Supremacy means anything at all, it involves constant appeals to Westminster against the Judicial system an the Magistracy which an Irish Parliament and Adminis- tration are sure to establish, and constant decisions by the Imperial authorities which will irritate the Irish. authorities to desperation. How can a supreme authority ignore complaints that partisans of an extreme type are put upon the Bench in Ireland, and that the result is flagrant injustice ? And if they do not ignore these com- plaints, where will be the freedom of the House of Commons from Irish questions, and where will be the promised satisfaction to Nationalist sentiment in their con- stantly contested and thwarted freedom ? Mr. Gladstone- and Mr. Morley are living with veils voluntarily drawn, over their eyes. They believed in their Home-rule heartily till they were compelled to allow Irish . re- presentation at Westminster. Since then they have made heroic efforts to believe in it ; but they have believed in it no longer. They have only been endeavouring to. blind themselves as long as possible to the hopelessness of their position. Now it has come to this, that they have had to register the full right of the Imperial Parliament to rule Ireland directly, notwithstanding anything that the Irish Legislature and Administration may do to embarrass- that right. And they may be well assured that, whether they contest and defeat the proposed "consequential. amendments" or not, that right,—if Irish Home-rule is. ever carried,—will be exercised freely. It cannot, indeed, be avoided ; and it will be much more irritating to Irish. Nationalism than the present system. The only result of Home-rule, taken with the practical assertion of what Mr. Gladstone calls the "hallowed supremacy," will be a much more vivid consciousness than ever of the painfulness of subordination, and a constant cursing of that name which Mr. Gladstone wishes us all, Irish and English alike, to hallow. It is becoming clearer and clearer as the debate goes on that " Supremacy " and " Home-rule " in the case of Ireland are radically incompatible ideas. One or the other will go to the wall, and we believe it will not be Supremacy.
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