THE IRISH LOCAL ELECTIONS.
THE result of the Irish local elections in the towns is in one way rather a triumph for the Spectator. Almost alone in the Press, we have maintained for twenty years that in the entire Irish movement there was a deep- seated Jacobin element to which the English did not sufficiently attend, and for which the only remedy was to make of the peasant a freeholder, and, therefore, angrily devoted to the defence of property. In other words, the Celtic masses in Ireland, tormented by the wide difference between their economic position and their aspirations, desire before all things more comfort, more security, more income not mortgaged to the provision of food, and at heart think that if they had a Parliament of their own they could get this out of the well-to-do. Mr. Daly, who has just swept Limerick, is, in fact, nearer their ideal of a Home Secretary than either Mr. Dillon or Mr. Redmond. He made what, from the revolutionary point of view, is the mistake of proposing to nationalise the land, instead of distributing it in freehold patches ; but the people felt instinctively that his principle, which is substantially that the poor have claims upon property because they are poor, contained the essence of their own secret hope. The town elections now reveal how strong this hope was. Everywhere in Celtic Ireland the masses have shown a passionate interest in the elections, everywhere they have taken power out of the hands of the conservative classes, and everywhere the Home-rule politician and the Labour party have joined hands. We think they will do so also in the counties, the labourers desiring to improve their condition, and the peasantry seeing a lever in local power that may help them to get the land, and if they do the result will be that Ireland will for local purposes be in the hands of men who, whatever degree of moderation may be imposed upon them by traditional fears, by legal restrictions, or by the risk of arousing the central Legisla- ture, will at heart desire, and will up to the limits of their power secure, that the poor shall have more and the rich less, the poor meaning all who have less than a pound a week, and the rich all who have more than three pounds. They will for this purpose, on the hypothesis suggested, have irresistible majorities, and will, being one of the quickest-witted of races, soon discover competent and determined leaders, a principal among whom will be Mr. Daly, if he is to become, as doubtless he will become, Mayor of Limerick.
The situation is a dangerous one, for self-government having been conceded, must be allowed fair play. We detest that niggling policy of giving with one hand and taking away with the other which has spoiled so many proposals for the benefit of Ireland. Moreover, up to a certain point the movement justifies itself. No one with a fair mind can doubt that as yet Irishmen have had less power over their own affairs than Englishmen, or that owing to a melancholy history the tendency has been to do too little for the people and too much for the " respectables." So far as the new Revolution remedies that defect it will be beneficial, and the danger will only arrive when that point has, in the judgment of the judicious, been visibly overstepped. A great deal even of extravagance, for instance, may be borne if the expendi- ture and the risk are clearly incurred for the permanent benefit of the citizens, for sanitary improvements, for example, for the greater security of the streets, or even— though there is danger in this—for the addition of a certain dignity which many Irish towns, especially the medium towns, conspicuously lack. What we should dread would be expenditure beyond this point, especially through loans and the payment of armies of municipal servants. The loans, it will be said, can be controlled from Dublin or from London, but they cannot be prohibited ; it will be most difficult to resist an improvement for which the citizens declare themselves willing to pay, and which will be urged by a hundred and three Members, all of them secretly satisfied that in the last resort England, bloated England, will first advance the money at 22 per cent., and then when votes are urgently required remit the debt. It is possible, too, to create an immense number of small posts to be held by voters, and thus to levy small armies of citizens devoted to the Town Council, and disposed to support it at every election ; and the temptation to do it will be very strong. It is so pleasant to gratify many neighbours at once when in return they can give you a popularity which secures to you power, and is only to be partially paid for out of your own pocket. The tendency in some of our own boroughs to overspend themselves is very strong, and the Irish, who have hitherto felt themselves kept down, will have much more enjoy- ment in patronage, in giving contracts, and in profusion generally. They are not a people incapable of thrift—that is an entire misreading of the Celtic character—but they are a vain people, excessively delighted with the position of patron, and inclined to think that if the evil day of reckoning will not come to-morrow, it is useless to think about its coming. Besides, how can there be an evil day for Ireland in matters pecuniary when the step-sister England is so near, and so proud of rolling in gold ?
Matters may go better than we fear, for prediction about Ireland is usually futile, the national character and the social organisation having elements in them which keep themselves, except on occasion, in permanent obscurity, but we confess to great misgivings. The temptation both to oppress and to waste—to oppress by ostracism as in Limerick, and to waste through salaries—will be enormous, and unhappily the great counteracting force which ultimately, and after grievous suffering, brought France straight, does not exist in Ireland. If the peasantry owned the land, and the citizens their houses, and all expenditure meant demands on both, as it does in France, where, out of seven million heads of families, five millions are property holders, we should have no fear for the result of the great experiment. There would be much foolish extravagance followed by much foolish parsimony, and then everything would settle down under rather heavy rates,but in cities and villages perhaps a good deal improved; but unhappily the great check is not there. The cities and towns and counties will all, we fear, get into difficul- ties, will all apply to Great Britain for help, and if Great Britain at length grows tired, will all declare that if Ireland were " free " she could manage for herself, and her Parliament could put everything straight. The natural instinct of Celts is to depend upon a central power, and find in it the strength which the Englishman or Lowlander finds in his own individuality. Local self- government may in Ireland diminish the wish to make of the island a separate piincipali17, but judging by these elections—of course as yet on imperfect information—we do not think it will. Race counts for much in the development of peoples, and we find it difficult to believe that the steady cleaving of France to the central power, its sense that local government was not sufficient either for its needs or its aspirations, can have been accidental. As Ireland cannot have its Convention without crippling an Empire essential to the world, any recrudescence of the desire for one must be a source of confusion, and to us, as Unionists, of regret. We can only hope that the early omens are deceptive.
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