MR. BALFOUR'S IRISH POLICY.
R. BALFOUR has the keen eye, which every states- man needs more than almost any other quality, for a great political opportunity. We hardly remember any occasion in modern home politics in which that keen eye has been so strikingly displayed as in the sketch of his proposed Irish policy which he gave to the House of Commons yesterday week, and which brought such unanimous support from all parts of the House, from the Irish Conservative benches first, but also from the Irish Nationalist benches with a cordiality quite as great, and of course much more remarkable. Nor were the Liberal Unionist benches at all less hopeful of the new departure. Sir John Lubbock was as sanguine as Mr. Carson and Colonel Saunderson and Mr. Healy, that at last the moment had been found for putting an end to the deadly feud which had so long alienated the hearts of the Irish tenants from the Irish landlords. Of course, as there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, we have no right to anticipate complete success for any endeavour, however hopeful, to heal Irish sores. Mr. Balfour's sketch is still a sketch, and Ireland is the land of all lands where unexpected difficulties arise, indeed where there sometimes seems to be a kind of popular disappointment if they do not arise. But in the mean- time it would seem that there is more hope than there has ever yet been that all parties in Ireland may unite to make Mr. Balfour's Irish policy a great step towards the extinction of heart-burnings in that distressful country. Mr. Morley must feel a pang that Mr. Balfour's great idea had not entered his own mind during the three years of the last Radical Government. But even if it had, we are afraid that he would not have com- manded the same conditions of success. What comes from a Conservative Government with that flash of surprise that carries with it an omen of peace, might have been but coldly received from a Government pledged to a kind of Home-rule going far beyond any scheme of local government, however liberal. We are far from denying, however, that Mr. Morley's administra- tion of Ireland during the last Radical Government contributed greatly, as well as Mr. Gerald Balfour's ad- ministration during the last two years, to bring about the propitious moment of which the First Lord of the Treasury has so happily availed himself.
The key to Mr. Balfour's proposal is his wish to find an opportunity for offering Ireland the full local liberties which have been given to England and Scotland, without those needful precautions and abatements which took all the grace off the Irish Local Government Bill of 1892, and made the Nationalist party look upon it as a mere insult. In 1892, when there was still a good deal of active dis- loyalty iu Ireland, and not a few outrages, a Local Government Bill without many precautions was im- possible. But after the five years' administration which has done so much to allay angry feeling in Ireland, the time has come when with the help of a few concessions which would put an end to the feud between landlords and tenants, there would be no reason to fear the grant- ing of the full local liberties to Ireland.which England and Scotland already possess. To these concessions Mr. Balfour now sees his way. He thinks that considering the large amount of Imperial expenditure on Ireland, there is no absolute claim to give Ireland the same grants towards the agricultural rating of that country which have been given to Great Britain under the Agricultural Rating Act. But though he denies the absolute claim of Ireland to equality in that respect, he sees an opening for removing the difficulties which stand in the way of equal local liberties by extinguishing the grounds of mutual suspicion between the landlords and tenants ; and this would be so vast a boon to Ireland that he thinks it quite reasonable to offer what would remove these suspicions, even though he does not admit that as a matter of strict justice Ireland has any positive claim to the grant. The real difficulty in giving Ireland the same local liberties as England and Scotland is that the landlords think that these new County Councils and District Councils and Parish Councils might be used to increase vastly the rating of the land for Poor-rates and other purposes beneficial only to the tenants and labourers, though the landlords would have to pay freely for them ; while, on the other hand, the tenants think that the new local liberties would be used to diminish the pressure of the rates, and that the landlords would ultimately reap the benefit in increased rent of what the rural population had effected. Of course quarrels of this kind would set up jealousies sure to ripen into class feuds that might easily disturb the whole of Ireland, and consequently Mr. Balfour's object is so to settle the controversy as to leave neither land- lords nor tenants room for complaint. This he proposes to do by paying practically the whole of the landlords' rural rates,—consisting for the most part of half the Poor-rate,- out of the Imperial Exchequer, while for the benefit of the tenants he proposes to pay half the county cess from the same source. He also proposes that both these con- tributions should be secured to the landlords and tenants, at their present amount, even after the expiration of the fifteen-year periods when the rents are revised and new valuations are made. The landlords are not to have the half of the county cm added to their rents at the expira- tion of the fifteen years ; and the tenant is not to have any increase in his rent by the action of the Sub-Com- missioners when the new valuation of his holding is made at the end of the fifteen years. If the rates are diminished by the economy of the local 'Councils, the tenants will have the full benefit of the economy, and the half of the county cess, as it stood in the last year before the local Councils were in existence, will still be paid out of the Imperial Exchequer. Again, if these local Councils should prove to be extra- vagant, and the rates should be raised, the landlords will not have to pay a penny more ; the extra cost will fall on the tenants. By this arrangement Mr. Balfour counts on healing the feuds between landlord and tenant, and rendering the operation of the new local liberties unpro- ductive of class animosities. No doubt this is a boon to Ireland such as has never been thought of, and we trust never will be thought of, for England or Scotland. But it is a boon granted for the purpose of healing a century- long feud such as we have never had in England or Scotland, and such as it is a duty for the British Govern- ment, if it is possible without other evil consequences, to remove.
We observe that some of our Radical contemporaries regard this proposal of Mr. Balfour as a surrender to Home-rule. No commentary could be further from the mark. Already in 1892 Mr. Balfour proposed to grant Ireland a very large and democratic Local Government Bill, but at that time he was obliged to weight it with guarantees for obviating the consequences of any policy of the new local bodies to be created which might have had the effect (as it probably would have had) of intro- ducing new disturbances in Ireland of a serious kind. The condition of Ireland since then has greatly im- proved, and now the only weighty reason against a liberal local government policy is the antagonism between the interests of the landowners and the interests of the tenants in relation to the rates. If these contingencies can be got rid of, there seems to be no ground at all for objecting to giving Ireland exactly such institutions with regard to local government as have been given to England and Scotland. And thus much Mr. Balfour thinks he can really effect by the proposal he is about to make. Where, then, is the excuse for calling this proposal a Home-rule Bill for Ireland ? It would be just as reasonable to call the County Councils and District Councils and Parish Councils for England and Scotland, Home-rule for these countries. The whole distinction between local govern- ment and Home-rule is just this, that very much larger issues, — issues bringing into the field the national rivalries between the two countries,---are raised by local Parliaments than can possibly be raised by any number of administrative changes carried by County or Parish Councils. It was always with great reluctance that both Conservative Unionists and Liberal Unionists came to the conclusion that the time had not come for bestowing on Irish local bodies the same sort of powers which had been conferred on these local bodies in England and Scotland, since such powers, if conferred uncon- ditionally, might be used to foster disloyalty and outrage. Now the time has come when there is no reason to fear such results, if only the jealousies between the landowners and the tenants could be fully extinguished. This Mr. Balfour hopes to effect completely, and there is no substantial section of Irish opinion at present which does not endorse hope. We are justified, therefore, in indulging the belief,—a sanguine belief, it may be, but surely not an unreasonably sanguine one,— that Mr. Balfour's Bill of next Session will make another great stride towards that true reconciliation of England and Ireland which has been so often attempted by the sword, or by penal legislation, or by some equivalent form of force, and which has so often made matters worse instead of better. In this case, whatever difficulties may still remain, it is hardly possible to doubt that the new departure is destined to make matters much better instead of worse, and to raise still higher the already high estimate of Mr. Balfour's statesmanship.
Previous page
