MR. PARNELL'S MODERATION.
IT is too much the custom of Mr. Parnell's critics to give him credit for deep designs to entrap the Govern- ment to their destruction, mainly because he announced before the Commission, very likely quite as much with the view of gaining popularity in Ireland as with the view of cutting short a troublesome cross-examination by blurting out the truth, that he should have had no scruple at all in misleading the House of Commons, and had in all pro- bability actually attempted to mislead it. Mr. Parnell knows as well as Prince Bismarck that there is often nothing in the world so bewildering to men as the truth. In our opinion, he told. the truth when he expressed his perfect willingness to mislead the House of Commons, if thereby he could gain a point for Ireland ; and, in our opinion, he told the truth yesterday week, when he made what is called the excessively " moderate " speech in which he advised Mr. Balfour to limit the Land Act of next Session as far as possible to giving freeholds to the class of characteristic tenant-farmers, and not to waste Government resources on large graziers who are already sufficiently independent of their landlords, and who do not need any special help to become more so. We regard that speech as good evidence that the Irish Land Bill is popular in Ireland. Mr. Parnell commenced in a tone quite bitter enough towards Mr. Balfour, and he positively paraded his perfect indifference to the thorough- going immorality of the " Plan of Campaign," by insisting that the " Plan " ought to have been limited. to a small area, and that it would be quite too dangerous to apply it all over Ireland, as his more eager colleagues, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Dillon, wished. What is intrinsically immoral is not less so for being limited to a few estates. Mr. Parnell had no objection to it because it was intrinsically immoral. He objected to it only because he could not see his way out of the absolute anarchy which it would bring upon Ireland, if the whole of the island were to be wrapped in the chaos of a universal breach of contract. And no doubt he was quite right that, so applied, it would have rendered Ireland bankrupt; and a bankrupt society is not a society in which even Home-rule will flourish. Still, he bad no objection at all to wrap a few estates in flame, in order to deter other landlords from exacting what their tenants had often quite freely and willingly contracted to pay. He only conditioned that society should not be resolved into its elements all through the island. He was right, we think, even from his point of • view. The universal application of the " Plan of Campaign " might very likely have rendered the exaction of rent impossible ; but it would have done so at a cost which would have held out no hope of establishing successfully either Home-rule or any other condition of society in which decent men could hope to live a decent life. It does not follow that because Mr. Parnell had the shrewdness to see what Mr. Dillon and Mr. O'Brien had not the shrewdness to see,—namely, that there are some expedients for removing a particular ill which involve ills of a much more disastrous order,—he has any real wish to promote the strength of the United Kingdom, or any power to-do so on the lines of policy to which he has committed himself in Ireland.
It is the same with regard to his remarks on the future policy of the Government. We have no doubt that, hoping, as he does hope, to see Mr. Gladstone in power after the next General Election, he thinks it his true policy to prepare for that event by toning down the hopes of the Irish peasantry, and throwing cold water, as it were, on the expectations of the zealots. He knows as well as any man that the Irish peasantry look for a sort of golden age whenever Mr. Gladstone returns to power, and that, so far from having a golden age, they will probably find them- selves in a sea of troubles enormously exaggerated by their sanguine expectations. It is his present cue, therefore, to throw as much of the responsibility for the future on the Government which he reviles, as he possibly can, and we feel no doubt at all that he would be only too glad if he could get any tolerable settlement of the Land question out of the present Government. In the first place, it would render the people of Ireland. less inclined to turn everything upside down, as they would have no wish to endanger the freehold of the little properties they had begun to pay for ; and in the next place, he would be able to lay the blame of the disappointment which the Irish people would certainly experience when they found what Home-rule really meant, on the wicked Government which had half- settled matters for him before the glorious Home-rule Parliament met. We do not at all doubt that the Irish people are very unwilling to decline the offer which Mr. Balfour has made them, and that Mr. Parnell knows this as well as anybody. That is one reason why he willingly suggests some remodelling of the Bill which would make it impossible to resist it ; and another reason is, that he would much rather have so delicate a problem solved by a Government which he could afterwards load with reproaches, than have it reserved for the Legislature over which he himself hopes to exert a large control. His dream, we hope, will never be fulfilled ; but Mr. Parnell is bound to assume that it will be fulfilled, and even if it is not, it is just as well, he thinks, to have the bird in the hand which the Government offer him, especially as that will not prevent his securing the two in the bush if oppor- tunity should favour him. Mr. Parnell is speculating for the event of a great Gladstonian majority. But he also wishes to secure something solid as the consequence of his Irish strategy, in case that majority should not come into being. Should Mr. Gladstone triumph, it would be the alleviation of a most difficult position, if he could treat the Land question as at an end for the present, and yet could profess himself thoroughly dissatisfied with the solution obtained. Should Mr. Gladstone fail, Mr. Parnell could still say: 'Well, we have not beaten the English party, but we have got great terms out of them. Look at the Irish peasantry who have become freeholders on easy terms from being mere tenants at will.'
It is therefore, to our minds, much more probable that Mr. Parnell's moderation is genuine enough, than that it is assumed. He is perfectly well aware that Ireland cannot be transformed into a paradise by any magic of his, and he would much rather have the transformation scene over before he becomes in any degree responsible,— as he now thinks that he may perhaps before long become responsible,—for Irish legislation and administration. But that does not in the least involve even so much as a desire to co-operate heartily with Great Britain, if ever he were really at the head of an Irish Administration, still less any ability to do so, after the long course of discipline which the Irish Party have had in the art of defying Great Britain, and baulking her every overture. What the working of Irish Home-rule would be, if ever it were really attained,— as we trust it never may be,—neither Mr. Parnell nor any other statesman can possibly foresee. But this much we may say, that Mr. Parnell's present attitude is explicable enough, if we assume that he knows the wish of the Irish peasantry to accept the proposals of the Government. And' that assumption is,—no thanks to him,—a very good omen for the success of Mr. Balfour with the Land Bill which is to be the first and the chief business of the next Session of Parliament.
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