MR. GERALD BALFOUR ON IRELAND. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPxorAroB.-1
SIR,—Will you permit me to comment briefly on your in- teresting article in the Spectator of October 19th, headed "Mr. Gerald Balfour on Ireland." I am of Celtic race and Irish, and therefore, I suppose, come under the category of not being as other Britons are ; but with this difficulty in my way, I shall try to explain where I think an otherwise admirable article with most important conclusions, loses its true weight. The reason is, I suppose, the impossibility of getting the " Saxon " to understand that Ireland is not one Ireland, but many Irelands, in the same way that Scotland and England are composed of many different types, races, and peculiarities, and that Ireland is not a terra incognita to be explored occasionally by some rising English statesman. The objects which you conclude by enumerating as being necessary and useful for the future of Ireland have been urged for years, on Government after Government, by those Irishmen who live in Ireland and know the country. I per- sonally have advocated, since I took any part in politics, the necessity of conforming in educational matters to the desire of the majority as regards University, intermediate, and even primary education. I urged in speeches and by pamphlet the resort to judicial commission if juries failed, through panic or otherwise, to act honestly and impartially, and I have time after time advised in Parliament and elsewhere the establish- ment of a large and comprehensive scheme for converting the present tenant into a freeholder without damage or loss to him or those interested in the landowners' property. As far back as 1884 I brought forward, with the assistance of that farseeing and able Irishman, the late Mr. Robert O'Hara, a plan which would have effected this object without friction or hurt to State, landowner, or tenant. What was the Ministerial reply ?—Non possumus. It has always been the same. Tae Government of the day will cave in to the agitator and rush wildly into some folly, but the " Saxon " ruler will not listen for one minute to the advice of Irishmen who know the country and understand its difficulties. I do not desire to say for one minute that I alone have brought forward these schemes ; many other Irishmen have helped me, and many have formulated themselves the same or kindred ideas. All point in the same direction, and yet Govern- ment after Government comes into power and goes out again, now driven one way, now the other, never stead- fast, never patient, but tacking and veering as the winds blow. Let me, as a constant reader and admirer of the Spectator, ask you also to try and cease this constant treatment of Ireland as an unknown land, and also to forget if possible the words " Celt " and "Saxon" in dealing with this question. The very men who most desire to purchase their holdings, are the plantation settlers of the North, nearly all of Saxon race. Therefore there can be nothing essentially Celtic in the desire to be a freeholder. The real wish is to get the rent or tax reduced by purchase, and to be able to sell the interest at a higher rate if desired. Again, it is the religion of the majority which forces denominational education to the front, and curiously enough, in Celtic or Gallic France this view is bitterly opposed by a large section of the people, who are hostile to priestly interference in education. Lastly, State assistance (which you advise) is absolutely necessary for all classes and races in Ireland, because the Saxon financier and banker has set his face dead against Ireland and Irish enterprise, and will put money into any wild-cat scheme, rather than touch Irish industries. I shall, perhaps, be answered that the reason is because the "Celtic fringe" and the "English garrison" are always fighting. The true answer is twofold. First, the Irish agitator has done all he can to destroy confidence, with a view to helping his own livelihood, which must die out once peace and contentment return. Secondly, every effort has been made by " Saxons " without knowledge of Ireland, to " crab " things Irish. "No Irish need apply," "Executors are for- bidden to invest in Irish securities," appear in the daily papers very very often. The Saxon (I think and hope unwittingly) treats Ireland one day as if she were a wild animal, the next day as a spoilt child, and then, perhaps, as if the country and her people were some newly-discovered and abnormal creation. Why can it not be remembered that Irishmen, Englishmen, Scotsmen are all mixtures of the same races (Saxon, Celt, Norman, and Dane), and the difficulties in Ireland are economic and religious, not racial? I hope the three subjects referred to in your conclusion will be dealt with boldly and comprehensively, but at the same time I submit that Englishmen should try and realise that there are thousands (one might say more than a million or two) of Irishmen who are as good Imperialists as any Scot or Saxon, and that their number is increasing rapidly, whether they be of Celtic, Saxon, Danish, or Norman ancestry. Why cannot Englishmen be induced to drop the old insular fad of saying "No Irish need apply," and ostracising everything Irish? am, personally, intensely proud of my nationality and my Celtic parentage, but at the same time I trust and believe implicity in the greatness of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and lreland.—I am, Sir, &c.,
CASTLETOWN, Of Upper Ossory.
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