THE ANTI-PARNELLITES AND MR. SEXTON.
THE Anti-Parnellites have offered the leadership to Mr. Sexton, and Mr. Sexton has declined that barren honour. He is perfectly well aware that be has not the kind of character, nor even the health, nor the external resources which would enable him to rule the party, and we believe that he has been wise. It was the stolid element in Mr. Parnell, his cold reserve, his indifference to Irish opinion, in fact the frigidity of his blood, which enabled him to subdue his followers and dictate their conduct with a sort of despotic self-confidence. And even he found Mr. Healy more than once a very formidable thorn in his side. Mr. Sexton could not endure such a thorn. He has the sensi- tive organisation of an orator, to whom the constant presence of a being who, like Mephistopheles, " always denies," who is always undermining by cynical suggestions every eloquent appeal that he makes to his countrymen, is simply intolerable. But after all, even if Mr. Healy were not at his elbow to interpolate the inevitable sneer, Mr. Sexton is probably well aware that at present the con- ditions for a successful organisation of the Irish party do not exist. Even Mr. Parnell found the work too hard for him till he fell upon the notion of the enormous temptation of a land agitation to conjure with. And even then, partly owing to his own growing unpopularity with the Irish priests, and partly owing to the statesmanship of the English states- men with whom he had to deal, he found the weapon gradually wrested from his hands. And now the English statesmen are very successful competitors with the Irish party for the support of Irish sympathies. They have really secured the freehold of their farms to a considerable number of the Irish tenants, and are holding out the hope of becoming proprietors to many more. Doubtless as yet the voting at the polls is as overwhelming on the side of Home-rule as ever. But the voting at the polls is not of anything like the kind of importance that it was ten years ago. There is nothing like the same disposition to follow up the vote by displaying the desperate discontent and dis- loyalty which ten years ago made the anti-English party formidable. The Irish Secretaryships of Mr. Balfour and M.r. Jackson and Mr. John Morley and Mr. Gerald Balfour have taken the wind out of the sails of the Irish Home-rulers. It is certain that at one time Mr. Balfour was one of the most popular leaders in Ireland, though he did not get support at the polls. There never was any of that deep distrust and hatred of him which the great man who first stemmed the popular wrath of Ireland, Mr. W. E. Forster, contrived to excite, though he it was who prepared the way for the turning of the tide. Since his time the Irish people have been learning that though they may be as steady for Home-rule as ever, they find life quite endurable, not to say hopeful, under the sway of a Tory democracy. They vote straight, as their priests advise them to do ; but they also live tranquilly, pay their diminished rents, and are quite content to put up with the English wind which is not only tempered to the shorn lamb, but made quite soft and genial to sheep who have not been shorn. Ireland is prosperous; and therefore Ireland, though she is anti-English still, is anti-English with a great difference. She is anti-English in the abstract, and cares almost as little for her abstract ideal, as the English Radical cares for the abolition of the House of Lords, which he still advocates with energy in due season, but does not allow to disturb his peace. In like manner the Irish constituencies vote for Home-rule when. they get an opportunity, but they do not seize opportuni-. ties for making their wish a menace and a calamity to the life of the State. They find their life quite satisfactory without it. It has now beeome rather " a pious opinion ''' than a sine quilt non of social tranquillity. Mr. Sexton- knows this. He knows that though be can make hie- journal popular by descanting on the grievances which remain, and representing how much better Irish states- men could manage matters for themselves than the Par- liament at Westminster manages them, yet Irishmen with read and applaud that sort of opinion without taking it• too much to heart. They are perfectly aware that if Ireland ever obtained Home-rule, it would obtain a new inheritance of difficulty and danger. There would be Irish parties always at each others' throats. There would be internecine quarrels with the Imperial Government in London. There would be great searchings of heart over the difficulty of raising the revenue, and there would be no reserve of English wealth to draw upon. In short, Home - rule would bring on Ireland a great many special troubles of its own, from which she does not suffer to-day. This the Irish people are quite shrewd enough to suspect. And therefore while Ireland finds the British Government always disposed to- lend a helping band in times of distiess, she is perfectly- willing to hold the pious opinion in favour of Home-rule,. quietly, and give up shooting from behind hedges at the English agents of Irish landlords. Mr. Sexton has been wise in declining the lead of the Irish party. Mr. Healy is not his only difficulty. The comparative content and accumulated savings of the Irish tenants are a much greater difficulty.
In our opinion the Anti-Parnellites would consult their- own interests best if they went without a leader, and• just followed Mr. John Redmond when be speaks for Ireland, and criticised him when he attacks needlessly their (rather feeble) Gladstonian allies. Mr. Redmond has shown himself very sensible in supporting Mr.. Horace Plunkett's various schemes for organising Irish- industry and stimulating Irish trade. Unlike Mr. Justin. McCarthy, Mr. Redmond has not deemed it necessary tee refuse good offers just because he cannot get all that he demands. There he is wise; and the Anti-Parnellites. would not find their constituents in the least disposed to be angry with them, if they strengthened Mr. Horace Plunkett's hands in spite of his Unionism, and did not. think it their duty to stand aloof from sagacious pro- posals for the benefit of Ireland, only because their hands- have not first been crossed by the offer of Home-rule.. They can go on repeating that every English gift is blunderingly given, and that all is vanity and vexation of spirit without Home-rule. And yet they may just as well take what they can get in the meanwhile, as they can loudly explain that flowing from such a source, they are not thankful for it. We believe that they would find that course of action much more satisfactory to their eon-- stituents than the cold indifference which Mr. Justin, McCarthy unwisely thought himself bound to profess.
Indeed, the time is not at all opportune for any very formidable organisation of the Anti-Parnellites. Their. English allies are timid and discouraged. Mr. John Morley' is about the only English statesman who is really heart and soul with them as tolrish Home-rule. TheGladstonians are- well aware that, even if the Local Option Bill ran it close,. Irish Home-rule was the chief cause of the Gladstonian disasters at the General Election. Therefore, this is not a moment for drawing the bonds very close. And as the only distinction between the Anti-Parnellites and the Parnellites is the disposition of the former to cherish the alliance with the English Home-rule party, it would, we- imagine, be a wise policy just at present to leave the bonds rather slack, and not put out Anti-Parnellite whips. at. all. Iu any case, without an able leader, such whips. would be worse than useless, and there is no leader, so. far as we can see, who would add to the party's strength. If a moment came when the enthusiasm for Home-rule revived in England, it would be easy to organise the party afresh. At present it seems a fitting opportunity for a policy of " masterly inaction." The Anti-Parnellite journals can go on firing their blank cartridges, while the Parliamentary party itself either lends a helping hand to Mr. John Redmond, or rests upon its oars and waits for the day.
Previous page
