MR. REDMOND'S IDEA.
MR. JOHN REDMOND'S speech at Cork on Sunday was in part a reassertion of the determination of the Parnellites to maintain their independence of all political parties but their own, and in part a defence of their intention to accept and work Mr. Balfour's scheme of local government. As to the first point there is really nothing to be said. The future of political parties is not always in the hands of their leaders. The rank-and-file of the party itself and the force of outside circumstances have a great deal to do with the shaping of it. At present there is no special reason why the Nationalists should be more united than they are. It is true, no doubt, that they can do nothing at Westminster until they have made up their quarrels. But then it is equally true that, with the position of English parties as it is, they could do nothing at Westminster if they were again of one mind. Consequently there is no present reason why Mr. Redmond, Mr. Dillon, or Mr. Healy should forget his wrongs or abandon his schemes for avenging them. Whenever the distribution of English party strength changes, the whole question of Nationalist disunion will no doubt be recon- sidered. The Irish people are shrewd enough to insist on their representatives coming to terms so soon as any real advantage is placed in peril by their dissensions. In certain conditions of English political warfare a united National vote might command its own terms, and if those conditions are again realised we may be sure that the present schisms will somehow be healed. So far as Unionists are concerned, this is a prospect which need give them no uneasiness. As they look at the future, English- men and Irishmen have got to live together somehow,— to be governed by the same Executive, to have their laws made by the same Parliament. A united Ireland, with which Englishmen can deal, or compromise, or which they can in case of need defy, is far preferable to an Ireland made up of discordant groups each bidding against the other, and making useful legislation impossible by always belittling its effects.
From the Nationalist point of view, Mr. Redmond's observations were very much to the point. The grant of local government is never unaccompanied by danger. Like all other governments, it can be administered purely or corruptly, justly or unjustly, tolerantly or oppressively ; and the choice made between these opposites will determine whether it is a curse or a blessing. For the sake of those who will have to live under the authorities it is proposed to create, it is to be hoped that Mr. Redmond's advice will be scrupulously followed. If Irishmen use their new powers 'with moderation and sobriety," if they are guided by a spirit of toleration and freedom," if no effort is made "to exclude any class or creed" from the benefits conferred,—they will, as we sincerely hope, make Ireland more prosperous and more tranquil than it has been yet. But it would not be honest thus to make Mr. Redmond's words our own and not to disclaim agreement with the conclusion which he himself founds on them. If his advice is followed, "much good," he said, "might come from this local government scheme, for they might be able to show England that Irishmen are capable of governing themselves." It is creditable to Mr. Redmond that he recognises that there are Englishmen who honestly fear that Home-rule may bring in its train "oppression, injustice, and jobbery," and so far as this fear is the only reason which makes them Uunionists, they might be converted by watching the good working of local government. But as regards ourselves the spectacle would leave us unconvinced. Oppression, injustice, jobbery are evils which might be corrected, even under Home-rule, either by the good sense of the Irish nation or by the intervention of the Imperial Government. What could not be corrected is the weakness that comes of divided authority, of power which can only act after negotiation and amid the higgling of the political market. States in which federalism is a step towards greater unity may put up with all this and prosper. There would be no such prospect for a State in which federalism was a step backward.
In our eyes, therefore, Irish local government is in no sense a half-way house to Irish Home-rule. It is quite natural that Mr. Redmond should see it in this light, and we can even sympathise with him in his contempt for those English Liberals who seek to "palm off their scheme of provincial federalism" upon Ireland "in the name of Home-rule all round.' " If we were Home- rulers at all we should certainly demand a Parliament "absolutely free, independent, and supreme in the govern- ment of every Irish interest." The strongest argument against Home-rule is the fact that it is worthless when incomplete and fatal when complete. There is another inquiry, however, arising out of Mr. Redmond's speech which has more practical interest. Is he right in his conviction that the acceptance of Mr. Balfour's scheme by the Irish people will not lead them to "abate a single jot of their demand for a full concession of national rights" ? We admit that their acceptance of the scheme will not in any way commit them to any such abatement. There is no inconsistency between local government and Home-rule, no reason whatever why a nation which has received the one should feel itself debarred from asking for the other. What we are concerned with now, however, is not the moral right of the Irish people to go on demand- ing Home-rule after the grant of local government, but the probability or improbability that they will exercise that right.
This is a matter upon which it is impossible to hazard a confident opinion ; we can but note the indications which seem to point this way or that. On the one hand, there is no reason why the concession of local govern- ment should affect the larger demand in any way what- ever. No doubt when Irishmen ask for either local government or Home-rule they may have purely practical considerations in view. They may argue that just as a Parish, or District, or County Council will promote the good government of Irish parishes, districts, or counties, so an Irish Parliament will promote the good govern- ment of the Irish kingdom. So far as this is their sole conception of Home-rule, it is at least conceivable that Irish affairs may be so well administered under local government that the wish for a national government in addition may in time die out. But this assumes that Home-rule is a demand which knows nothing of senti- mental considerations, and when we see what influence the sentiment of Home-rule can exert in Austria, it would be in the highest degree unsafe to deny its influence in Ireland. We can but say that there were points in the agrarian agitation which suggested something more than a doubt whether if Home-rule had constituted the whole of Mr. Parnell's programme he would ever have wielded the power he did. It may be, of course, that the disappearance of the land question and of the education question would only have brought Home-rule into greater prominence. But it may equally be that when the land question and the education question were finally settled Irishmen would discover that what they most cared for had been obtained, and consequently that Home-rule, in ceasing to be valuable as a means, had ceased to be important as an end. We cannot say which of these conjectures is nearer the truth, because the land question and the education question are very far from being finally settled. Indeed. one of the chief reasons for which we welcome Mr. Balfour's scheme is that it may by and by provide means for furthering their settlement. So far as English prejudices stand in the way, it may prove very much. easier to raise money for land purchase, or for denomina- tional endowment, when the machinery for giving effect to these ideas can be found in the County Councils, than when every step towards their realisation has to be taken. in the Imperial Parliament. Happily, therefore, Unionists and Home-rulers can work heartily together in favour of Irish local government. They may look for different results, but they can at least agree in thinking that, which- ever anticipation proves true, things in Ireland cannot be worse than they are, and may be very much better,
Previous page
