TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE FIRST DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT.
WE are not sorry that the First Lord of the Treasury has delayed for another week making his statement as to the procedure which the Government will recommend to Parliament. It is always a gain to make such a state- ment under urgent conditions, which serve to impress all parties with the conviction that the Government mean what they say, and. are not likely to be hammered into further modifications of their proposals. It would have been impossible to speak with any finality before the Committee on Procedure had made its Report. A good deal must depend on that Report, and on the evidence taken before the Com- mittee; and not only will a good deal depend on the Report and the evidence itself, but still more on the effect which that Report and that evidence produces on the Government, and the resolute spirit which, as we hope, the result will elicit from them. Even if the Parliamentary conditions of the case, as they come out in the Committee, are more or less unfavourable to the proposal of the Govern- ment,—if, for instance, they show, as the Times appears to expect, a majority for that proposal carried only by the casting-vote of the Chairman, or even if they should show no majority at all,—it may still be a very great advantage for the Government to have these unfavourable conditions plainly before them when they state their case. For we must never forget that the ultimate effect of the statement will depend a great deal more on the evidence of firmness and tenacity of purpose which the Government give, than on the temporary response which they may be able to elicit from a House full of obstructive elements. We earnestly hope and believe that the Government will hold fast to the advice to carry over partly debated Bills of the first significance from one Session to the next (of the same Parliament). And we earnestly hope that they will press and carry the proposal to apply such a rule to the Irish Land-Purchase Bill of the present Session. But it is far more important that they should show the utmost determination to keep the Bill alive, if it be possible, than even that they should actually keep it alive. Circumstances are imaginable in which it would become physically impossible to keep it alive ; but no circumstances are imaginable in which it would not be absolutely essential to make it evident to all the world that the Government are so thoroughly deter- mined to carry the Bill next Session, that they will make the greatest sacrifices to do so, and use the most strenuous efforts to impress on the country at large how resolute and how confident they are. We all know that there is a Conservative vein of feeling which is very averse to any proposal for facilitating con- structive legislation, and that this may combine with the Gladstonian aversion for any change of procedure which promises to diminish the difficulties of the Government in passing a popular Irish Land Bill. We are not of opinion that it would matter very much if, after there had been final evidence that the purpose of the Government is as strenuous as ever, or rather, more strenuous than ever, the circumstances of the case rendered it clearly impossible both to pass the new Standing Order and also to apply it to any measure of this Session. That would be &misfortune, and a misfortune which we do not anticipate, though we see a bare possibility that it might arise. But it would be a matter of comparative indifference as compared with any indication that the Government are, we will not say so much as half-hearted, but even not absolutely fixed in their resolve to do all that a courageous Government can do for the full development of their Irish policy before the dissolution. The final consequences do not depend on this Parliament, but on the electors of the United Kingdom. Anything and everything which might serve to convince the electors of the United Kingdom that the British Parliament is competent to reform, and absolutely determined to reform, the Irish land system, ought to be done, and then the responsibility will lie with them if they deliberately supersede such a Government by one pledged to hand over the future legislation of Ireland to a local Parliament. All that is absolutely necessary now is for the Government to impress their purpose vividly and peremp- torily on the electorate of this Kingdom. If they do that adequately, nothing else matters very much. If they do that inadequately, even though they may be perfectly firm in their intention, they might almost as well throw up the e.
The circumstances of the time are not discouraging to' any statesman who chooses to recognise for how much. courage and volition count in a period when courage and volition are not plentiful. In the first place, Mr. Glad- stone is showing his courage only by concealing his real intentions from the people, and even from his own followers. He thinks apparently that any complete plan for Home- rule would alienate more votes than it would gain, and we have no doubt that he is right. But this should encourage the Government, who have nothing to conceal,. and who have proposed nothing that they cannot justify, to make the contrast between their own frankness and Mr. Gladstone's reserve as conspicuous as possible. In the next place, such symptoms as we have before us of the state of public feeling are quite as satisfactory as statesmen who are not nearly so anxious for rest as for success, need desire. The Barrow election shows the strongest presumption that in a fair conflict between Home-rule and the Union, the would prevail. It is true that it also shows the only weakness in the case, a failure on both sides to interest British constituencies at all deeply in the Irish Question. It is too easy, a great deal too easy, to eclipse the interest in that question by any little trumpery question which fanatics. can raise. But that is just the sort of weakness which decision, courage, and a flash of imagination can overcome.- Mr. Gladstone has failed to interest the great mass of the constituencies of Great Britain quite as conspicuously as Lord Salisbury, though he may have succeeded in in- teresting them more in himself, and indirectly, therefore,. in any policy which he proposes. He has inspired a con- siderable number of subordinate leaders with something like a new religion ; but his new religion does not spread fast among the electors,—indeed, it interests them much less than the old religion. Success is easily within our reach. But it will take strength of purpose, made visible by every manly device that can be suggested, to grasp and hold it fast.
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