Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-05-11
The Irish Crisis.

ue lElSu OIASlSs
1t must not be forgotten that there are
two sides to the present crisis in Ireland
the political and the social. However
Mr. Gladstone may attempt to deal with
the former, he cannot well retrace his
steps as to the latter, despite his state
ment that call previous arrangements OF
the government must be recast.
The change in the governments policy
which brought about the resignation OF
Mr.. Forster and the appointment of the
Inflated Cavendish, together with the
release of Parnell, Dillon, Davitt and
others, was the result of negotiations
based on Mr. Healy's bill, to the further
ance of which the Ministry and the
League leaders are committed. 1t was a
virtual truce between the people of Ire
land acting through their recognized
leaders and the advisers of the Queen.
Mr.. Gladstone, it must be noted,
while declaring his purpose to introduce
measures for the repression of crime, in
the same breath announces that he will
also introduce a measure in reference to
arrears of rent. 1t will thus be seen that
Mr.. Gladstone, despite his grave situa-
ton, has not lost his head. The Phoenix
Park horror complexities matters, and
dispels for the time the likelihood of the
people OF England and Ireland coming to
something like an agreement. But the
land question has been largely settled,
and its final settlement cannot be long
delayed. whether the League lives or
dies. In fact, for all practical purposes.
the League has served its ends. 1t has
wrung concessions from the government
and leaves the completion of the task to
Mr.. Gladstone or Tory successor, salts
fed that whoever abides in Downing
street must complete the work which
Gladstone has thus far wrought. The
land problem, though its ultimate solu.
ton may be delayed, was not removed
by the occurrence of Saturday. Reforms
never GO backward. and it is a rule in
British politics that measures fought
most sturdily by the opposition, when
they come to power, are cherished and
furthered by their former foes. The
social phase of the Irish crisis may there
fore be regarded as certain to disappear
in the final solution of the problem Of
land reform.
The political phase is another matter,
and upon it Mr.. Gladstone will have to
bestow all his shrewdness and sagacity.
While he must concede something to the
just indignation of the alarmed British
public, and while he cannot ignore the
demands of the Tory organs, he must
have learned some truths. His expert
ence has taught him that he could not
cOerce a whole people, and it ought not
to be difficult for him to draw the con-
clusiOn that he cannot indict whole
people, much less convict them. Clearly.
the way out of the trouble is not by
force, but by return to law. The peo-
pie of Ireland have been strangers to
law for months pest, and it is not singu'
lar, when it was taken from them, that
many of them should lose their respect
for it or their dread of it.
The programme of Mr.. Gladstone has
not been foreshadowed, but the abolition
of jury trials in cases of murder, limited
at as one of its possible features, will
hardly help to win back that regard for
law, without which little progress car be
made towards restoring tranquility. The
Ministry now have an opportunity to
appeal to the better feelings of the Irish.
and by statesman-like action bring about
an improved state of affairs. The great
boon Ireland Graves is well known. 1t
may be denied, but if the British Govern
ment refuses now to meet the crisis as it
should be met, the time may come, and
that speedily, when it will be glad to
substitute the council chamber filled
with the chosen men of Ireland for jails
peopled with the victims of oppression,
ignorance and tyranny, as the proper
mode of governing its troublesome ap-
| pendages.