Mr. Redmond's frankness is in every way creditable to him;
but the speech shows how absolute a difference there is
• between what English Liberals and Irish Nationalists mean respectively by Home-rule, and how impossible it is to expect that the Nationalists will be satisfied with the Liberal policy. The Liberals do not mean by Home-rule an independent Ireland, while Mr. Redmond and his friends mean nothing less. But though the Government can give nothing which will satisfy the Nationalists, we fully admit that that is no reason why the Government should not, even in spite of the Irish Party in Parliament, introduce sound and wise im- provements in Irish administration. Their business is to administer Ireland as well as they possibly can, just as it is their business to administer England and Scotland on sound lines, irrespective of other considerations. If, however, their object is not good government per se, but the satisfying of the Irish Party, they are bound to fail. It is amusing to note in the speeches of Mr. Redmond and of other Nationalists the calm assumption that they represent all Irishmen. Not a Word is heard of Belfast, or of the anti-Home-rule minority to which a third of the population belongs. Radical Noncon- fermists, remembering the action of the Irish Nationalists in regard to the Education Bill, will be interested to learn from Mr. Redmond that his policy is to hold aloof from all English parties and Governments.
Previous page
