THE SITUATION.
THE Tories, through a very intelligible and excusable error, misunderstand the situation, They see that there is a certain division of opinion among Liberals, they hoar of re- monstrating deputations to Mr. Gladstone, they know that the Whigs are annoyed, though sensible, and they believe that the differences will shortly become dissensions. That is an error. The Liberal party, though, as usual, full of intellectual divergencies, is, so far as we can see, quite united in a resolve that Mr. Gladstone's policy with regard to Ireland, whatever it be, provided that he believes in it, and does not merely accept it under pressure, shall be carried through. Groat numbers of them, like ourselves, aro• keenly disappointed that coercion should be necessary, and admit it to be necessary only because leaders whom they know to be thoroughly well-inclined to Ire- land declare that it is impossible to go on without it. A Low may stay away from the final division on that subject, but the majority will vote, and as the Tories are pledged to the lips on that side, the repressive Bill will he carried by more than a two-thirds majority. The Land Bill, on the other hand, will probably be resisted by the Tories and carried by the Liberal vote alone ; and as to this Bill, opinion on the side of the majority runs thus,—The whole body of the Liberal party unite in the belief that excessive demand for rent must be prevented by law, that eviction should be restrained within the smallest possible limits and be carried out only by a Court, and that great effort should be made to utilise waste land for the benefit of the congested districts. Many Whigs are unwilling, though not absolutely refusing, to go further than this ; but the body of the Radicals, a few Whigs well acquainted with Ireland, all the Irish Liberals, as distinct from the Land Leaguers, many 'Ulster Tories, and a considerable number of thoughtful Members of all parties, are extremely anxious that the Bill should be very wide, so wide that the Irish tenantry will acknowledge it to be a great Bill, and that the
question may be solved for at least a generation. They desire, before all things, a certain finality, a certain
security for the landlords' rent, and a large increase be the number of persons interested in defending property, and they think these things only obtainable through peasant-proprietor- ship and fixity of tenant-right. They do not think that land- lord authority, in its present form, tends to social order. They, therefore, while the Bill is still in the crucible, press these views upon the Cabinet, not only in deputations, but in other ways at least as efficacious. They do not, however, threaten, but only remonstrate ; and they will, there is no serious doubt, support any Bill which, does not seem to them hopelessly inadequate. In answer to these representations, Mr. Gladstone and the Cabinet reply very distinctly that they will not propose an inadequate Bill, that they believe their plans will satisfy all reasonable Liberals in both countries, but that they sco reason not to. reveal their proposals until they can be placed in extenso, and with explanations before the Houses. The 'presumption, the violent presumption, front all they say is that they are prepared with proposals which will in their result secure very large reforms in the direction desired; probably in practice the " three F's," and some- thing else, namely, a very considerable increase. in the freeholding proprietary, but that they are excessively unwilling to seem to introduce revolutionary changes, and therefore will, with almost morbid care, keep " dramatic," or " sweeping," or "sensational" clauses out of their measure. We hold, as we have repeatedly said, that they are wrong. The Irish people are a people desirous of broad and simple effects, and impatient of detailed legislation, while the new constituencies in Britain only feel enthusiasm for proposals easy to understand. It would be wiser to give less in a striking way, than more in a humdrum or unintelligible way. We admit, how- ever, and we believe all Liberals will admit, that the Govern- ment may have reasons for its course. It was formerly the English way to introduce most serious reforms, or even changes, in the Constitution in the form of Bills amending Sec. 22 Cap. 6 of some forgotten reign, and it is natural that a Government of elderly men should not quite recognise how deep a change Lord Beaconsfield's Reform Bill made in the temperament, as well as in the character of the Electoral body. Moreover, Consti- tutional government, through a Committee of the two Houses, one democratic and one aristocratic, has enormous difficulties of its own, never more felt than in times of crisis. It is essential that the joint committee called the Cabinet should pull together, which ensures a certain amount of compromise, and a rooted distaste for " dramatic " action, inasmuch as that accentuates and reveals the necessary concessions all round, and it is most expedient to avoid to the last possible moment collision between the Houses. No Minister in his senses would desire, while urging an imperative social reform, to compel the dis- cussion of a subject so " burning " and so surrounded with difficulties, as the ultimate rights of the House of Lords. The Government may, therefore, be justified, on a considera- tion of the balance of evils and advantages, in its disappointing course, and unless its Bill is found to be feeble—a suggestion we reject, as inconsistent with the character of its framers— the Liberals, whether enthusiastic or only tolerant, will sap- ' port it with decision. The differences will not be allowed to become dissensions. No Liberals are in the least likely to desire a more sweeping Land Bill than we do, for we hold the "secret of Ireland " to be the collision between the actual and the desired tenure of the land, but we shall accept any strong measure
which the Government sincerely believes. will secure the end.
The Liberals will be the more united, because they know, and the Tories know, and the whole country knows, that before any Land Bill can be reached, a pressing and imme- diate danger must be overcome. A compact and united party in the House desires neither coercion nor land reform, and will endeavour to postpone both. Parliament, for the first time since 1688, is not free to act, any more than if it were coerced by a mob or threatened by dragoons. Its movement will be obstructed by an adroit use of its own forms, and until Obstruction is out of the way, it will remain in fetters. It will take a dead-heave from both sides to remove the timber over which, as Punch shows us, the knight has to leap his horse ; and until that dead-heave has been made,. all serious party movement must be suspended. That it will be made, and made successfully, we do not doubt. The Tories are pledged not to use such a weapon as obstruction, and the Liberals, bitterly as they feel and lament the necessity, cannot shrink in the presence of a danger which, if it is not faced, will destroy
representative institutions. It comes to this,—that if Obstruction cannot bo prevented, the power of legislation must be entrusted to the Cabinet, their laws being laid on the table, to be annulled if the Houses choose. That is the only alternative, and that is government by a Committee of Public Safety, and not government by a House of Commons. Obstruction must, therefore, be swept away, even if we have to declare it treason to the State,—and in presence of so visible a necessity party differences are nothing. The necessity, however, hangs over all politics like a black cloud, and until it is removed all discussions of the situation, or of the prospects of any measure, or of the line any Government or any party may take, must remain a little unreal.
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