Lord Spencer resigned the Viceroyalty of Ireland on June 27th;
and we confess we do not quite understand the silence in which he has been allowed to depart. Ha has received as yet no honour from the Throne, no special recognition from his col- leagues, and no marked expression of sympathy from his party. Yet be has for three years sacrificed everything that to a man of his culture and temperament makes life pleasant in order to govern Ireland. He has during all those years been in hourly danger of assassination, and has been assailed with a storm of slanders, carefully prepared to be- spatter him by men who knew them to be unfounded, such as might have made the strongest quail. And he has done his work successfully, and has, by the admission of the Extremists themselves, so used his large powers that the authority of Law has been restored in provinces whence it had disappeared. Rarely has there been an instance of more complete devotion to the public service, and rarely one that has been less lavishly rewarded. Honours are probably of little value to Earl Spencer ; but there is no evidence as yet that he has been even honoured. We cannot think it well to allow a belief to grow up that Irish office spoils every man's career, and that though Irishmen cannot rise in insurrection they can make the task of governing them as little honourable and as full of pain as the task of governing a prison or a lunatic asylum. We recognise all service, apparently, except the one which we admit to involve most care, most danger, and the least hope of the pleasure of success. Certainly it is not in England that we pay, as economists say we ought to pay, according to the unpleasantness of the task performed.
Previous page
