TILE IRISH VICEROYALTY.
IT is no wonder that the Government find a difficulty in replacing the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and it is not to be regretted that they should find that difficulty. There ought not to be any Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. The Secretary for Ireland should be made a Secretary of State, and to him should be transferred those responsibilities which are now devolved upon the Lord-Lieutenant, respon- sibilities which even now are virtually borne by Mr. Balfour, though they are nominally borne by Lord Londonderry. As we are all aware, the Viceroyalty was very nearly abolished forty years ago ; and. if it had been not almost but altogether abolished then, we might have been spared much needless conflict in recent years. So far, we go entirely with Mr. Howorth's letter to yesterday's Times, and, indeed, regard the main proposal of that letter as altogether sound and statesmanlike. Whether the sub- sidiary proposal to purchase or build for one of the Princes a palace in Ireland, and to impose upon him the duty of residing a good deal in that palace, be a very im- portant one, we are very much less certain. It could do no harm ; it might do a little good, and. would cer- tainly be all the more likely to be beneficial if it were not started as a very grave proposal of high policy, but rather as a subsidiary suggestion intended to indicate coniiality of feeling towards Ireland, and not a serious political drift. The time is, we believe, long past when much political effect could have been expected from a more constant and close relation between the Royal family and the people of Ireland. And the fear is, that if any fuss is made about the matter, and the provision for a palace in Ireland is treated as a, grave political prescrip- tion for disloyalty, the result may be a contemptuous refusal by the people of Ireland of a boon so prof- ferred. But if, instead of making a fuss about the matter, and treating the residence of one of the Princes in Ireland as a question of high policy, one of the Princes, say the Duke of Connaught, were encouraged, or perhaps aided by the State, to buy a residence there, and to exer- cise hospitality on a certain scale, it is quite conceivable that though no revolution of feeling would be thereby effected, a certain amount of modest good would be done, and a certain amount of bad feeling would be removed. There is always a considerable class which does not greatly interest itself in politics, and which would be gratified by coming into closer relations with the Throne. And so long as too much is not made of it, the conciliation of that class can never be a matter absolutely insignificant. Loyalty would filter down through that class to a very much larger number of its retainers, and the consequences would be, though of a humble, certainly of a useful and beneficial kind. But we are speaking, of course, of a Royal residence in Ireland that should be entirely unofficial. Nothing could be more mischievous than to connect the Royal family officially with the Lord-Lieutenancy, even though its poli- tical character were to be abolished, and a princely Vice- royalty were to endure under the government of all parties alike. Unionists do not want to embody and glorify the idea of separateness, in the way in which any princely Vice- royalty would certainly embody and glorify it. If Ireland. is to have a separate Legislature and. Administration, it would, we suppose, itill retain a separate Governor; and in that case, the Viceroyalty might be preserved and its political character extinguished. But if Ireland is to be merged. in the United Kingdom as England and Scotland are merged in it, then the Secretary of State should. do all that the Viceroy now does, and nothing would remain for a Viceroy, whether princely or otherwise, to do. We can- not imagine any step more mischievous in the Unionist sense than the glorification of the Viceroyalty by conferring it upon a Prince of the blood. Whether it would be right to continue for an indefinite time the provisional course which is now adopted during the absence or temporary non-appointment of a Viceroy,— when the Viceregal power is exercised. for all necessary purposes by a Commission of Irish Privy Councillors,—is another question. That would. be a very proper course to take while the Government are in doubt as to their policy, and are, ostensibly at least, looking about them for a suc- cessor to Lord Londonderry. But we are inclined to think that so serious a step as the virtual suppression of the Viceroyalty, should not be determined upon without the announcement to Parliament that that is the policy of the Administration, nor without giving Parliament an oppor- tunity of approving or censuring that policy. Un- doubtedly it is a sound Unionist policy to merge the Lord- Lieutenant in the Secretary of State ; but there is just as little doubt that this should not be done by the Govern- ment without taking the nation into its confidence on the subject. Of course, the question is too big to be taken up this Session, nor is there any hurry about it. The Government have probably not yet made up their mind that if a sufficiently rich and sufficiently com- petent Lord-Lieutenant could be found, they would not appoint him in Lord Londonderry's place; and the Com- mission of Privy Councillors will do very well for the remainder of this Session and for the autumn which succeeds it. But if the interregnum is to continue any longer, we think that a definite policy should be determined on and should be frankly announced. Of course, the abolition of the Viceroyalty would be very strongly opposed by the Home-rule Party. They would regard it as a foreclosing of their case before the General Election had decided the issue. And they would probably oppose it with a tenacity that would give the Government a great deal of trouble. Nevertheless, nothing would be lost by taking the bull by the horns. Indeed, much would be gained by it. The more distinctly the Government identifies itself with the Unionist policy, the more clear will be the issue submitted to the nation when the dissolution comes, and nothing would make its policy more definite, nothing would engrave it more sharply on the imagination of the people, than a proposal to get rid of the Irish Viceroyalty altogether. The very fact that the Opposition are preparing to make the Viceroyalty so much more important than it has been of late years, is a reason why those who disapprove that policy should take up the challenge, and declare their wish to get rid of this emblem of division between the two islands. If we are not to go forward to Home-rule, it is, to our minds, per- fectly clear that we ought to get rid of the index of insulation which the Viceroyalty contains. Parliament willnever be really supreme in Ireland as it is in England and Scotland, while the Royal authority in Ireland is delegated to a sort of Sovereign, instead of to a mere servant of the Queen. Those who wish to give Ireland a separate Parliament and a separate Administration, very naturally wish to keep up the appearance of a sort of Colonial throne. Those who wish to see the Parliament and Administration the same for England, Scotland, and Ireland, should announce boldly to the people of these Kingdoms, that there is no longer need for any repre- sentative of the Sovereign in Ireland who is not directly responsible to the House of Commons.
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