MR. PARNELL AND HIS CONVENTION.
THE letter of Mr. Mitchell Henry, in which he repudiates the part assigned to him by Mr. Parnell in the proposed Irish Convention, and "solemnly protests against the whole proceeding," is a futile attempt to struggle with a superior . force. Few things can be more interesting to the student of politics than to watch the rough process of natural selection which has been doing its pitiless work among the Irish public leaders during the last few years. The opening of the present Parliament saw Mr. Butt in undisputed command of a party who were never tired of proclaiming their sense of his supe- riority, and their gratitude for his headship. Four Sessions later there was open mutiny in the camp, and, though Mr. Butt was no sooner dead than his shortcomings were forgotten and his memory canonised, there can be little doubt that, had he lived on till now, he would, like O'Connell, have witnessed the final extinction of his fading authority. In the Home- rule party, the two men who were marked out by their ante- cedents and position as Mr. Butt's most probable successors were Mr. Gray and Mr. Mitchell Henry. The former has already, after a short but angry conflict, acknowledged his conqueror. Mr. Mitchell Henry, as his letter shows, still wrestles with the inevitable, but he, too, is destined to succumb. The alternative now presented to the Homo-rule members is a very simple one,—to swear allegiance to Mr. Parnell, or to be drummed out of the ranks. Many people will regard this rapid transference of popular affection and trust, as a fresh illustration of the inconstancy which is often imputed to the Celtic races, and to none more often than to the Irish. To the English, who know Mr. Parnell best as a kind of political sapper, to whom nothing is sacred, it seems at first-sight hard to understand how such a man should succeed in supplanting a political leader of the approved type like Mr. Butt. BUt the matter is easy enough of explanation. The Home-rule party, when it began its career in the House of Commons, well organised and admirably led as it appeared to be, was in reality composed ef the most incongruous elements. The majority of its members were ordinary Irish Liberals, who had "accepted Home-rule," and remained in all other re- , spects what they had always been. Side by side with these were a few, like Mr. Butt himself, who on every subject but one were gennine Conservatives. The remainder, with an exception here and there, such as Mr. Sullivan, were " dark " men, of whom little was known, and perhaps not very much expected. Once every Session, Mr. Butt was wont to deliver a mellifluous dissertation on the advantages of Home-rule, and to receive the congratulations of the leaders of both parties on the excellent taste and moderation which never failed to characterise his harangue. But beyond this annual display, Ireland derived no appreciable benefit from the existence and exertions of the Irish party. It was not until Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar mutinied and began their independent guerilla campaign, that anything worth battling for was won. Even if nothing had come of it, Irishmen would at any rate have had the inspiriting feeling, to which they had for so long been strangers, that some real fighting was going on, in which their representatives were contending courageously against overwhelming odds. But the results have been substantial enough, or have appeared substantial enough, to justify a far more desperate enterprise. The Intermediate Educa- tion Act, the repeal of the Convention Act, and the University Act bear witness to the vigour of the onset and the collapse of the defence. Mr. Parnell may well contrast the fruits of two Sessions of the " active policy" with the barrenness of the four which preceded them. Nor can we be surprised that, under the circumstances, he is at present the most popular man in Ireland. In the eyes of the Irish, the means which he has employed are dignified by the ends which they have achieved. Indeed, the state of semi-paralysis to which he has reduced the Parliamentary machine is doubt- less regarded as a more effective argument for Home-rule than any number of Mr. Butt's well-turned periods.
It is this position of authority which has encouraged Mr. Parnell (for he is the real mover in the matter) to summon the "National Convention," against which Mr. Mitchell-Henry 'solemnly, but ineffectually protests. Some Of our contemporaries appear to look upon the whole thing as a perilous and treasonable proceeding, which ought, if possible, to be put down. But if the repeal of the Convention Act in the last Session of Parliament meant anything at all, it was surely intended to legalise meet- ings of this kind, and to legalise them because they are no longer dangerous. We confess, however, that we do not expect much from Mr. Parnell's Convention, because we can see in the arrangements proposed no security either for a fair repre- sentation or for a free expression of all phases of Irish opinion. The autocratic suddenness with which the scheme was launched, the known defection of some of the more influential Home-rule leaders, the consequent probability that the con- stitution and programme of the assembly will be manipulated by a caucus, the certainty that many large sections of Irish- men will stand aloof altogether, the novelty and difficulty of the experiment itself, however widely welcomed and honestly worked,—all these circumstances lead us to expect that the Convention will very much resemble a meeting of the Home- rule League, purged of the anti-Parnellite malignants, and reinforced by an overwhelming body of thick and-thin adherents of the hero of the hour.
At the same time, we are inclined to regret that it should be so. We do not share either the apprehension or the con- tempt which the Times expresses at the idea of a "mock Parliament" sitting for a week in Dublin. On the contrary, we believe that the meeting of a real, and not a sham, Con- vention, capable of giving articulate expression to the wants and complaints of Irishmen, impracticable as it may be, might serve some useful purposes. It seems a melancholy confession to make, after the years of patient study which English politicians have given to Ireland, but it is still true, that England does not understand the Irish. "Les Anglais sont justes, mats pas bons," says a French critic, of our rule in India. The English, in Ireland, as elsewhere, desire to be just, but their lack of sympathy often destroys the effect of their most righteous and unselfish acts. The Irish, on the other hand, though they know how to be generous, are curiously wanting in the sense of justice. The incompatibility of the two peoples, like that of the Magyars and Slays, rests on one of those fundamental differences which are covered by the word "race," and which often bailie the most far-sighted statesman. 'Recognising this, as most people do now, we ought to wel- come the light which an honestly constituted Convention might throw upon much that is at present unintelligible to us in the bewildering chaos of Irish political ideas. To take only the most obvious illustration,—which of us knows what is meant by Home-rule ? We know what it means to the Times; we know what it meant to Mr. Butt ; we have a vague idea of what it means to Mr. Shaw. . But what does it mean to Mr. Parnell? what to the farmers of Galway? what to the peasants of Kerry To how many is the cry for self- government the mere expression of a vague passion for an Ireland no longer absorbed in the undivided fame of the United Kingdom, but a conspicuous, self-sufficing member of the Empire ? To how many is it the utterance of an equally indefinite longing for an Ireland such as Mr. Mitchell Henry painted the other day,—a country of fully developed resources, abounding in railways and harbours and all the machinery of wealth 'I How far is it a blind demand for some redress of the unequal conditions of life, on the part of those who have brooded over their ever-deepening misery and poverty, until they have come to confound suffering with in- justice? If in the Home-rule and Anti-Rent agitations there are, as we believe, all these elements, and many more which can be only dimly descried, or which are even wholly hidden from view, the best service which the Irish can render to them- selves and us, is to let us see and hear them all. Perhaps, too, some English journalists might be better employed in trying to get a closer view of' these strange phenomena, than in hurling brickbats of political economy, or muttering threats of disfranchisement.
Previous page
