IRISH COERCION.
; HE Irish orators in Parliament are certainly cultivating
moderation of speech. Except Mr. O'Connor Power,_who spoke after the old style of Irish denunciation, though not without ease and ability of its kind (but how, by the way, can a man, with any gift for oratory at all, condescend to use so bastard and impossible a word as "landocracy "?—why, you might _just as well say "selfocrat"), the drift of the arguments used by the opponents of the Irish Peace Preservation Bill was extremely sensible, and not without real weight. It consisted chiefly in showing on how poor a class of evidence the Irish authorities chiefly rely for their assertion that continued powers of the coer- cive kind are necessary; and how much the reports of policemen and of magistrates, whose interests, though not those of the police, are to a considerable extent those of game preservers,. are biased by the official love of authority, and the official preference for exercising it in the way that gives the least trouble, and is least liable to be hampered by con- stitutional resistance. But what the Irish Nationalists evaded, and, as we think, evaded with a certain deficiency of logical, not to say moral, courage, which greatly diminished the effect, of their criticism, was the very great difference, for all legisla- tive purposes, between a species of crime which arises from one or two well-defined causes, like political disloyalty and agrarian discontent, and crimes due simply to the bad. passions of individuals. It is perfectly true, no doubt, as Mr.. Sullivan urged on Tuesday with so much earnestness' that England is a far more dangerous country to live in, so far as regards the violent outbreak of individual selfishness, brutality, and lust, than Ireland. But then no class is put into fear, as a class, by the violence of these outbreaks. Every man and. woman has his or her share in the danger so arising,—the members of the lower class a much more substantial one, on the whole than the members of the more comfortable classes, though not the same danger of violence conse- quent on robbery,—but no profession or calling is rendered so insecure by it that it becomes an important qnestion whether men will not recoil from the service altogether. Whenever that kind of specific class-danger arises, there seems to us to be a real obligation imposed upon the Government, if the same purpose cannot be satisfactorily accomplished in any other way, to give a special protection to the class so specially endangered, even though it may involve a curtailment of the general public's rights and privileges. A popular Govern- ment has a perfect right to diminish the security of all from violence, if that be needful, by insisting on guarantees for- liberty which protect all equally from false and needless sus- picion and false accusation. But when only a special class, either the officers of Government or the tenants of the soil, are specially endangered, when it is clear that it is one -or two classes which will incur all the peril of the guarantees for liberty, while the others reap only the benefit, no wise Government would sanction those guarantees. As the Solicitor - General for Ireland argued in his conciliatory and able speech, you must find a specific remedy for a specific malady, and not plead the general interest in favour of letting an evil go on which threatens the general interest much less than it threatens that of one or two :hazarded: professions. Now, none of the Irish Members attempted to meet this position of the Government. Mr. Butt, on. the contrary, argued that because in Great Britain we specially. object to giving the Government coercive powers against out- breaks-of disaffection, we ought to treatIreland in like fashion. But first, these outbreaks of disaffection in Great Britain have- been frequently met, as Mr. Disraeli showed, by very sharp, coercive measures ; and next, they have seldom or never been aimed at a particular class like the agrarian crime of Lreland.
This is the true apology for special laws ageinstafgarian crime in Ireland, and it is an apology which seems to us complete, sci long as there is good evidence that the action of the ordinary almost seems as if Ireland were prepared to be bitterly offended law is really ineffective. On that head, no doubt, Mr. Butt that she can boast no rich coal and iron mines, and this, far made a very strong point. He said most truly that the tendency more on the ground that England can boast of wealth of that of coercive laws is to paralyse the action of the ordinary kind, than that such wealth would be of use to Ireland. On law, and to inspire a sort of official helplessness to be- the other hand, English politicians are far too apt to be content lieve in the efficiency of the ordinary law. Unquestionably With this fatally-easy, coercive policy for Ireland, without this was the case as regards the ordinary Press Law before the assuring themselves that it is the only remedy for the mis- special Press Law was enacted in 1870. The Government chief, and accept it only because it has been proposed by one might, we fully believe, have obtained convictions and punish- English Government after another till it is supposed that meats for the offences of the Press under that ordinary law three what English Statesmen are always assuming to be neces- or four times as often as they did. It was very seldom that an sary for Ireland, really must be so. Both states of mind Irish Government prosecuted a newspaper without securing a are bad,—the jealous state which measures Ireland's needs conviction and a severe penalty. The extraordinary powers by England's needs, and the self-satisfied state which obtained in 1870 were, in our opinion, much more than would judges of Ireland's needs by English statesmen's habits. On have been needed,had but the Government shown the least firm- the whole, however, we are satisfied that the present Govern- ness and energy in using the powers they had. But that was pre- ment has, as Mr. Disreaeli said, made an honest_endeavour to cisely what they would never do. They had been so accustomed to conciliate Ireland, and we only 'cyst that in respect to the the use of very arbitrary and unquestionable powers against provisions made for the conditiona of Irish social peace, these political offenders' that they could not bear to be remitted to endeavours have not gone 'further. If the provision against the ordinary legal remedy which every Government has against the indiscriminate use of arras,h,ad been retained, and otherwise slach offenders. And this, no doubt, has been equally true mother the Westmeath Act alone had been continued, the government, eases. -The habit of elair,aing almost despotic discretion has though they might not in any appeoiably greater degree, we demoralised those who execute the ordinary law in Ireland, fear, have satisfied the Irish Members, -who measure concession And this seems to us by far the strongest argument against the not by what is given, but by the difference between the treat- renewal of the lease of such powers. When is the Govern- meat of England and Ireland w)lich remains, wind& yet have raent to learn the habit of making the most of its ordinary rights, left it quite clear that they are bent on giving back with if it is never to give up extraordinary rights till it can be satis- all 'prudent celerity the very large powers which had been factorily demonstrated that it is safe to do so I As Cavour granted to meet a spe,cial emergency. Beyond this the demand said, " Any one can govern with a state of siege." And we for an absolute identity of poliOy in relation to England and may add, that no one who does habitually govern with a, state Ireland, while the _conditions of crime in the two countries is of siege knows the true resources of a Government that has still so different, is intrinsically irrational, and by no means one no chance of obtaining the powers accorded in a state of siege. which, if ever Home-rule could be established in Ireland, the We may add that we do not think the.Government made any local authorities of that ceuntry would feel at all :inclined to adequate case for the continuance of the general powers,of the sanction. Irish Members too often stickle for Irish rights, in Coercion Acts of 1847 and 1870, so far as regards the very the Legislature of the Empire, which they would call Irish arbitrary power of search given in them for letters in the hand- wrongs, in the Legislature of the Island. writing of persons suspected of sending threatening letters, and for arms. As the Irish Opposition very justly urged, these are the powers which are most liable to abuse, since they are THE FINAL REPORT UPON THE BENGAL FAMINE. practically granted -to the police,—and in the case of the war- nib Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has now sent in his rants for searching for arms, are granted in perfectly general JL final Report upon the Famine of 1874, and those who terms, without any specification of particular houses where accused the Press of reckless exaggeration and undue pressure search is to be made,—and put in force at the discretion of the upon the Government may now pour out the vials of their police, without any real supervision by more educated persons. wrath upon official reporters. Sir Richard Temple, writing apart from the provisions of the Westmeath Act after the Famine has passed away and its scenes of suffering for putting down Ribandism in particular parts of Ireland, are no longer before his eyes, after he has himself visited every there really is no pretence at present for these arbi- distressed district, after he has collated the whole mass of trary powers of search, which Mr. Butt conclusively showed evidence sent up to him by his English officials, and native to be liable to very gross perversions indeed, for purposes Staff imported from the North-West, by European planters totally different from those for which they were granted. and native landlords, records his deliberate opinion that the The power to search for arms is made an instrument of campaign undertaken by the Government against the Famine in the Game Laws, and in some cases a weapon to prose- Behar saved two million lives :— cute private piques between clergy and people ; and the "It has been seen in Chapters H. and IV. that the condition of the power to search for documents has been made the means people in the great rice tracts of Durbhunga, Mudhoobunnee, spite on women. There should b Ram. of wreaking private nugger, Bettiah, Soopool, parts of Mozufferpore and Seetamurhee, and e no room left for abuses such as these except on the most parts of Purneah, Dinagepore, and Rungpore, in March and April last, urgent grounds, and we do not think that out of Westmeath, no means of earning anything. I believe that the best-informed persons and the other counties included in the Westmeath Act, are quite right when they say that the people of these tracts could not the Government showed any substantial case for the grant of such powers as these. We must say we think they might number, if Government had not stepped in and helped them. Such a consequence would represent the loss of about one and three-quarter very well have given up these general powers altogether, millions of lives. Besides this broad sweep of destruction, there would except in the districts where they are specially needed for the have been sporadic mortality or individual casualties in large numbers suppression of Ribandism. Had the Irish Members made a in the districts of north Behar and northern Bengal generally ; also in kind, conces in united front for a moderate stead of parts of Moorshedabad, of the districts round Burdwan, of Chota Nag- pore, and Sonthalia. This secondary degree of mortality would repro- indulging in arguments which are sti very wide of the mark as sent an aggregate which cannot be stated numerically, but it might, were Mr. Sullivan's proofs that, in relation to ordinary crime, perhaps, represent a loss of nearly 500.000 lives. This would raise the England stands far worse than Ireland, they might, perhaps, possible mortality to a number of two millions and a quarter. The have succeeded, and certainly would have gained more than the very small proportion of English votes which swelled the by so competent an authority as Warren Hastings that one-third of the numbers of the Irish minority, population of Bengal (or, as it has since been calculated, ten millions of The violent constitutional jealousy expressed by the Irish Mem- bets of the policy of treating Ireland in a manner different from for years, and as having been adopted by so able a thinker as James England in relation to the particular offences which have so mill in his 'History of India.' In 1874, for several months, three often imperilled the peace of Ireland, is very natural, and very millions to four millions of people, and in two months four and a quer- wholesome in its way, but hardly touches the question of leg's- ter to four and a half millions, were either living on, or helped by, grain or money supplied by Government, or at the expense of the lative policy. If any class in England or Wales were threaten- charitable relief fund. My estimate—and after all, it is a mere estimate ing the proper execution of the law, as the Rebecca Riots once —is that more than half of this number' or upwards of two millions of did, the scene of these disorders in England or Wales would pro- people, must have fallen victims to the famine of 1874 if Government bably become the subject of exceptional legislation, at least as had not interposed on a great and costly scale." ilocui as it became apparent that the ordinary means of restoring This is exclusive of four great provinces in which (page 64) and preserving order had failed. What the Irish need is, the people were so pressed that they compelled the private more indifference to their relative, and greater care about their Relief Committees to break the orders of Government restrict- 6bsolute, position in relation to crime of the agrarian kind. It ing relief, and means that over a tract 320 'miles long by 90 long as there is good evidence that the action of the ordinary almost seems as if Ireland were prepared to be bitterly offended law is really ineffective. On that head, no doubt, Mr. Butt that she can boast no rich coal and iron mines, and this, far made a very strong point. He said most truly that the tendency more on the ground that England can boast of wealth of that of coercive laws is to paralyse the action of the ordinary kind, than that such wealth would be of use to Ireland. On law, and to inspire a sort of official helplessness to be- the other hand, English politicians are far too apt to be content lieve in the efficiency of the ordinary law. Unquestionably With this fatally-easy, coercive policy for Ireland, without this was the case as regards the ordinary Press Law before the assuring themselves that it is the only remedy for the mis- special Press Law was enacted in 1870. The Government chief, and accept it only because it has been proposed by one might, we fully believe, have obtained convictions and punish- English Government after another till it is supposed that meats for the offences of the Press under that ordinary law three what English Statesmen are always assuming to be neces- or four times as often as they did. It was very seldom that an sary for Ireland, really must be so. Both states of mind Irish Government prosecuted a newspaper without securing a are bad,—the jealous state which measures Ireland's needs conviction and a severe penalty. The extraordinary powers by England's needs, and the self-satisfied state which obtained in 1870 were, in our opinion, much more than would judges of Ireland's needs by English statesmen's habits. On have been needed,had but the Government shown the least firm- the whole, however, we are satisfied that the present Govern- ness and energy in using the powers they had. But that was pre- ment has, as Mr. Disreaeli said, made an honest_endeavour to cisely what they would never do. They had been so accustomed to conciliate Ireland, and we only 'cyst that in respect to the the use of very arbitrary and unquestionable powers against provisions made for the conditiona of Irish social peace, these political offenders' that they could not bear to be remitted to endeavours have not gone 'further. If the provision against the ordinary legal remedy which every Government has against the indiscriminate use of arras,h,ad been retained, and otherwise slach offenders. And this, no doubt, has been equally true mother the Westmeath Act alone had been continued, the government, eases. -The habit of elair,aing almost despotic discretion has though they might not in any appeoiably greater degree, we demoralised those who execute the ordinary law in Ireland, fear, have satisfied the Irish Members, -who measure concession And this seems to us by far the strongest argument against the not by what is given, but by the difference between the treat- renewal of the lease of such powers. When is the Govern- meat of England and Ireland w)lich remains, wind& yet have raent to learn the habit of making the most of its ordinary rights, left it quite clear that they are bent on giving back with if it is never to give up extraordinary rights till it can be satis- all 'prudent celerity the very large powers which had been factorily demonstrated that it is safe to do so I As Cavour granted to meet a spe,cial emergency. Beyond this the demand said, " Any one can govern with a state of siege." And we for an absolute identity of poliOy in relation to England and may add, that no one who does habitually govern with a, state Ireland, while the _conditions of crime in the two countries is of siege knows the true resources of a Government that has still so different, is intrinsically irrational, and by no means one no chance of obtaining the powers accorded in a state of siege. which, if ever Home-rule could be established in Ireland, the
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