MR. SEXTON'S ABDICATION.
IT is not very easy to suppose that Mr. Sexton ever really intended to reconsider seriously the acceptance of the offer to make him chairman of the Anti-Parnellite party on Mr. Justin McCarthy's resignation. It looks very much as if he had formed from the first the intention just to get enough pressure put on him to make Mr. Healy join the crowd of Anti-Parnellite suitors for his acceptance, and then to deliver one effective blow at his old tormentor before finally retiring. At any rate, if that was not his real intention, he could not have finessed the situation more successfully than he actually did, if that had been his purpose. He showed from the first just enough, and no more than enough, hesitation, to invite pressure, and. yet never gave much hope that the pressure would suc- ceed. Mr. Healy was quite shrewd enough, we think, to detect his real determination to resign Parliamentary life. At the same time there was just enough appearance of vacillation to give a good opening for a safe display of magnanimity on Mr. Healy's part. We do not believe that Mr. Healy really wished to see Mr. Sexton elected Chairman. He knew very well that his own influence would be much greater in case of Mr. Sexton's refusal than in case of his acceptance. Mr. Sexton has gifts far exceeding those of any other member of the Irish party for fixing atten- tion on himself, and giving a certain distinction to his leader- ship. And that was not what Mr. Healy wanted. But he did want, no doubt, to take the opportunity of making a little flourish of his own disinterestedness and his wish to persuade Mr. Sexton to mount the throne. Mr. Sexton probably perceived this, and availed himself of the opportunity to get one last effective thrust at the Mephistopheles of the Irish party. He drew Mr. Healy on to write that apparently frank and gracious letter which seemed to be so loyal to the party and so full of admiration for his own genius. The letter was written, and Mr. Sexton's opportunity came. He replied with the fullest acknowledgment of its cordiality of tone, but at the same time the fullest exposure of the unmeaningness of that cordiality when it was tested by comparison with the practical line which his (Mr. Healy's) journal had taken in relation to Mr. Sexton's personal conduct. It had accused him of plotting against his former chief, Mr. McCarthy ; of affecting a wish to retire for the ultimate purpose of gaining the leadership ; of having "waded through the mire" throughout the negotiations with the Freeman's Journal as well as in relation to the leadership ; and even of misrepresent- ing the true circumstances of the journal he edited. All this Mr. Healy had hardly contemplated that Mr. Sexton would reveal. But he did reveal it. Doubtless he thought, and thought truly, that any sharp attack on Mr. Healy would strengthen the hands of the next Anti- Parnellite leader, whether it should be Mr. Dillon or another. And probably it will strengthen them, for it will lessen the influence of Mr. Healy over the minority of the party, and so play into Mr. Dillon's hands. Mr. Healy is for the present more or less deprived of his influence. He has played so fast and loose with Mr. Sexton as to open the eyes of some of his supporters to the self-interestedness of his conduct. And for the present at least, Mr. Dillon will find himself firmer in the saddle.
But the situation is far from promising for the party. The Parnellites are still a minute party, but they still represent the policy of the one man who has come nearest to winning the game for Irish Home-rule. The Healyites have lost influence, but they do not vanish from the field of battle. They still divide the Irish priests, and carry a good deal of ecclesiastical influence with them. The Dillonites have no complete command of the field, and are well aware that the votes they still poll at an election count for very much less than they did under Mr. Parnell's rule. For Ireland has no longer a dictator or anything like a dictator. There is no fear of any of the three leaders as there was fear of Mr. Parnell. And with- out fear, there is no real discipline in the Parliamentary party. Nothing prevents the Irish from fighting gaily amongst themselves, except fear of the authority of their leader. And since Mr. Parnell's death, there has been no stern hand to enforce respect, and no stern voice to inspire it. The Irish party means a small thing compared with what it meant ten years ago. It votes steadily, but it does not any longer really threaten disobedience to the law on those points on which the leader refuses to countenance the law. In Mr. Parnell's day, there was a secret Government that could defy the British Government, and there is such a secret Government no longer. Mr. John Redmond does not command the springs of popular passion any more than Mr. Dillon or Mr. Healy. Irish Members now are mere candidates for popular favour, not the elements of a great and mysterious force such as Mr. Parnell could dispose of ; and their wrangles are a mere con- diment to the political tastes of the people. The Irish leaders are popular, but they are not held in awe ; and without awe Ireland is not really controlled. It can be governed, though it cannot be persuaded, by the Irish Secretary, unless the leader of the popular party happens to wield an authority different in kind from any mere popularity. Mr. Sexton knew this, knew that it was not eloquence, not reasoning, not self-interest that rendered Ireland ungovernable by the authorities at Westminster, but some curious compound of hope and fear, of which neither he nor any of his colleagues possess the secret. Irish constituencies do not understand the constitu- tional tactics which are so effectual in Great Britain. They are quite willing to send Members to Parliament, and to watch their proceedings there ; but they hardly regard their representatives as bound to do anything but "make fight" with the Government and win concessions. if they can ; they never think of them as English con- stituencies think of their representatives,—namely, as- wielding all the power they can dispose of. They reserve a great deal of devotion for any "uncrowned king" when they happen to have one. But when they have none, they are very willing to let the British Government make such terms with them as it can, and to accept those terms if they happen to be more or less satisfactory. With the Irish people, representative govern- ment is a sort of superficial play which does not in any sense exhaust the field of political authority. If they have any true confidence in their popular leader, it is he who really wields their authority, not the troop of Members. And if there is none such,—and there is none such now,—the alien Government of the day, alien though it be, can exert a good deal of practical influence, unless it happens to excite odium and hatred, which at present is not the ease. Just now the Irish people are not at all disposed to regard. the existing Government as their enemy. It is the weakness of the present Irish party to overdo the policy of Opposition ; they have a genius for Opposi- tion, but no genius for confining it within practical and useful limits. The Irish people love the interest and excitement of a fray so much, that unless they have a very strong man at their head, they deviate into frays of no pos- sible use to themselves, for the mere pleasure of the fight. Mr. Dillon is far too much of a mere Irishman and far too little of the cool, shrewd man of the world, to keep his followers,—if they can be called his followers,—to a kind of Opposition that has a business purpose and that is not of a mere guerilla kind. Under Mr. Parnell the Irish party were really taught discipline. Under any leader who is now possible, we shall have an undisciplined Opposition, that is quite as likely to diminish the influence of the Irish party as to increase it. Mr. Dillon is not the leader to concentrate his Opposition on the points that will best serve the purposes of the Irish party.
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