MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN ULSTER.
TEETcentral idea of Mr. Chamberlain's campaign in Ulster S a most excellent one, and is being admirably worked out. The mere fact that he can speak in Ireland at all, still more the fad that he has had a semi-Royal reception, and that his speeches are applauded by huge crowds, bring home to English- men their mistake in calling the Parnellites "the Irish." They are forced by the spectacle, as well as by Mr. Chamberlain's oratory, which has rarely been more effective, to remember what they are always forgetting, that there are two nations in Ireland, and not one, and that the smaller of the two, though it keenly desires changes in its land laws, is not only satisfied with the administration of the United Kingdom, but thrives under it exceedingly. While the people of Western and Southern Ireland, three-fifths of the whole, are pressed by suffering, which in some places is chronic, and declare that they are ruined, or, as they say," destroyed," by an alien rule which invents new laws only to deprive them of their liberties and degrade their standing in the world ; two-fifths of the population, dwelling on a less fertile section of the island, living under the same laws, and subjtoted to the same exceptional legislation, display all the signs of prosperity, and cling to the accursed foreign role with each vehemence that they threaten armed insurrection if it is withdrawn. The most energetic, the most orderly, and. the wealthiest of the two nations within the island, net only resiets but detests the proposed revolution, and welcomes Mr. Chamberlain with enthusiasm because he speaks for those Liberals who, rather than vote for it, have broken up their party, have forfeited their hopes of advancement, and have allied themselves to an organisation with which they have for a generation been contending. The feeling of Ulster, and of those Irishmen who belong to Ulster in all ways except geographical residence, is a cardinal fact in Irish politics which Englishmen overlook ; and in bringing it forward to the light, Mr. Chamberlain performs an immense ser- vice. English Home-rulers are not being misled by their vices, but by their virtues ; and if they once realise that the principles which they propose to apply to Ireland, apply equally to Ulster ; that Ulster contains a people, has had a history, and regards Catholic Ireland as a foreign country ; they will reconsider, not, indeed, their principles, but the possibility of their just application to Ireland as a whole. Even Mr. Gladstone perceives that the case of Ulster is not covered by his arguments, and has repeatedly hinted that he is willing to consider any working proposal for placing Ulster in an exceptional position.
That exceptional position is, as we believe, an impossibility, and it is because it is an impossibility that the "Ulster Question" is, in the present struggle, such a vitally important one. Ulster cannot be separated from Ireland, or placed under a neighbouring Gevernment not that of the Wand, or made into a self-governing canton under the ultimate control of Dublin. The people of the province are too mixed, and any plan of the kind, unless accompanied by a cruel expulsion of the Catholic section—which would not only be a colossal wickedness, but is physically impossible—would render civil war inevitable in the not distant future. The native Government of Dublin would have partisans in every county, and a party in every town, and would almost of necessity strain all its resources for any length of time to compel or persuade Ulster to come in. The Separatists would be enthu- siastic for this object, for without Ulster Irish inde- pendence is a dream, and the Home-rulers pure and simple would be met at every turn with difficulties which only the absorption of Ulster could overcome. The native Govern- ment would, without Ulster, be deprived of a third at least of its revenues—probably far more, for every rich Irishman would live there—of all control over its Press, of much of its hold over its criminal classes, and of all means of resisting or objecting to British compulsion. It would be compelled, poor as it would be, to waste half its energies in keeping up an impossible Customs frontier, and would be galled every hour of the day by criticisms which would. be felt to be
at once hostile, fatal, and Irish. No such position could last for ten years ; it would be met by the savage boycotting of Ulster—that is, the destruction of its wealth— and before long, Ireland, unless held down at both ends by a British force, would be the scene of a deadly civil war, envenomed at once by religious hatred and by commercial fear. So certain are these results, that the abler Home-rulers, excited though they are, perceive them clearly ; and we question whether men like Mr. Parnell and his more sensible lieutenants would accept Ireland without Ulster, even as a basis for future operations against Great Britain, They would realise the danger of failure too strongly ; and the situation, therefore, for English Home-rulers to consider is just this. You cannot create a self- governing Ireland—if you deny that Ireland is self-governed —without including Ulster in your plan. You cannot include Ulster in your plan without committing the same offence of political oppression which you think you are now committing, in Ireland as a whole. If, therefore, your object is mainly to relieve your consciences, it cannot possibly be attained by simply conceding Home-rule. You cannot bear dragooning Ireland—which is no more dragooned than London—but under that plan, you must dragoon Ulster, dragoon it as France would do, for the single offence of desiring the continuance of your rule. Home-rule, therefore, lands you, as far as your consciences are concerned, in an insoluble dilemma.
By bringing forward this question, which is kept out of sight because it is so difficult, Mr. Chamberlain, as we have said, does inestimable service. So, also, he does in the biting criticisms which he passes on the probable results of Home- rule on the prosperity of Ireland. They will have little effect in Ireland itself, where an Utopian dream—not in itself without a touch of noble feeling, though there is also a touch of sordidness in it—has got fast hold of the popular imagina- tion.; but they will greatly influence the hard-headed men who make up no inconsiderable portion of the constituencies throughout Great Britain. The native Irish Government, if we may judge from the experience of New York and ofDublin, will be the most expensive Government in the world, and will ex- tract its revenue by the most unscientific means. Irish Home- rulers, however, will not believe that, or care for it if they do believe it, they holding, as revolutionists have ever held, that ideas are independent of their results ; and we peas on to the- only portion of Mr. Chamberlain's speeches on which we have unfavourable comment to make. Like him, we hold that the agrarian revolution in Ireland must be worked out ; like him, we believe that the only just method of working it out is by purchase on a great scale ; and like him, while we maintain that Britain may fairly pledge her credit to aid Ireland, we feel the enormous difficulty of inducing the British people to sanction any undertaking so great and so expensive. If Mr. Gladstone talking finance could not persuade them to his plan, who will But when we come to consider the long talked-of plan by which Mr. Chamberlain proposes to solve the difficulty, yve must confess to an acute feeling of dieappointraent. If we understand it, and it seems clear enough, the landlords will be paid off in debentures, the interest of which will be guaranteed by local bodies who will collect the quit-rents, and who will be com- pelled to collect them, as they now are to collect the rates. If they do not collect them, they will have to levy rates to supple- ment the deficiency. As they certainly will not collect the rents, the rent-payers being also the electors of the Guardians, this pro- posal is one to buy out the landlords by a large loan, borrowed on the security of Irish rates. Who will lend it, except at ex- travagant interest, unless, indeed, in the hope that the British Treasury will, after many delays and much squirming, ultimately pay the money ? The immediate result of that operation will be that Ireland will have one grand grievance, the mortgage of her rates—which are burdens more felt than taxes—to the perpetual maintenance of a class of do-nothings who at some previous time had owned the land. The landlord will be the Grand Perpetual Pensioner, and will be assailed by every agitator throughout the country, as well as by Members who, in all usual Sessions, will hold the balance of power between the British parties. The scheme is as yet undiecussed, and we have no wish to condemn it or any other prematurely, especially as it might be supplemented by a tax on sugar to form a sinking fund ; but it strikes us at present as unworkable, or rather as involving in a high degree that policy of placing liability on the British taxpayer which Mr. Chamberlain declares to be already rejected.
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