LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL AND MR. GLADSTONE. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] SIE,—As the letter in the Spectator of November 11th, signed "Scrutator," is preceded by my letter to you of November 7th, it is perhaps needless to point out the mis- statement as regards myself which that writer makes. Still, as this mis-statement casts light on the general accuracy of " Scrutator " on the whole subject of his letter, I must ask your leave to direct attention to his assertion that in 1881, I had "parted company with Mr. Gladstone ostensibly on the plea of ill-health ; but really he [‘ Scrutator '] believed on account of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy." As I am tolerably well known to the public as speaking out very frankly on my opinions, whenever it is a public duty to do so, this representa- tion of my conduct in 1881 is sufficiently improbable. But it does so happen that my speech in the House of Lords on August 2nd, 1881, on the second reading of the Irish Land Bill, was a very full one, was reprinted as a pamphlet, and, as a matter of fact, attracted considerable attention at the time.
Everything I then said has come true—in the sight of all men. The whole rental of Ireland has been withdrawn abso- lutely from the improvement of the Irish soil. No owner of land can lay out a sixpence on it with even tolerable safety. On the other hand, the whole benefit (if any) of the system has been absorbed by those who happened to be tenants at the time. The highest competitive prices have been charged by them to all men who had to purchase their tenant-right. The cottiers and labouring population have been, and are now, charged the same high competitive prices for " conacre," or allotment accommodation. The people have been " demo- ralised " by the idea that the Government of the day can, or may appoint, men to be "judges" of rents, in order to reduce them in the interest of voters. The public mind has been demoralised by the idea that decisions may be called "judicial," which are purely arbitary, and founded on no law, human or divine; and that the regulation of prices is a matter to be determined by the corrupt use of political power. All these consequences, or most of them, were in- dicated in my speech referred to, although some of them have come out even blacker than I anticipated. No man can foresee the developments of evil from measures which are thoroughly unsound in principle.
I have only one confession to make in respect to one ingre- dient in my sense of duty in 1881, on which I was reticent at the time. My objections to the Bill were conclusive in them- selves. But there was one additional feeling in my mind, which was this. I saw in a fresh light that terrible readiness in the mind of the Prime Minister to slip, slide, and tumble down the slopes of temporary political expediency, at the sacrifice of principles and opinions which had been his own,— which were, in my mind, matters of primary obligation ; and the total sacrifice of which we have lately seen in still wider and more disastrous application. Certain quotations from Mr. Gladstone's own previous speeches in 1870 on the same subject, I did make, in my speech of August, 1881. But I did not then feel called upon to express publicly the degree to which my confidence was destroyed in that intellectual integrity in matters of high moment, which is vital to the trustworthiness of statesmen.—I am, Sir, &C.,
Previous page
