The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-09-27
The Tory Program for Ireland.

The Tory Program for ireiaho'
As il was to be expected from their
kind of politics the Tory leaders IN
England are engaged in an effort to
completely reverse their Irish policy'
replacing the iron hand of repression
with offers of concession and concll'a-
ton that are fairly amazing in the eX
tent to which they 60 while protesting
not to grant Home Rule. Mr.. u. bal
four, the Irish secretary, AS he outlined
the program in the first session OF the
new parliament. made the change OF at
titude SO clear that it is impossible to
mistake it, and offered even more
than his elder and ADLER brother, a.
j. Balfour, was willing to grant In the
parliament of 1862. He said not Il
word about renewed application
the Crimes act. The Tory party is
not ready to stultify itself to the OK
tent of formally repeating it, but is
ready to let it drop into innocuous des,
uetudc, while profrerring large doses OF
agrarian, educational and autonomlc re-
form. 1t proposes an Improvement OF
the Land act of 1881 by shortening the
term for which judicial rents are liked,
and an increase of the facilities for
converting occupiers into peasant pro-
prietors through loans made by the state
Even measure of relief for
cvicted tenants, may. it is declared,
be hoped for. 1t plans to establish
board of agriculture and to organize
a system of technical education. y
readiness, moreover, is expressed to APP
ply public funds to the support OF Cath
Ollie schools and to the creation OF Il
great Catholic university III Dublin.
Then if these "Overtures are received
in a friendly spirit'-that is, II the
Irish will give up their alliance with
the Lberals-the Tories profess to be
prepared to extend to Ireland practl-
cally the same scheme of county gov
eminent which has been operative for
some years in England; and, should
this work well, the new English ar
rangements for the self -government OF
parishes might be produced. There is
also seemingly a purpose of abolishlng
Castle government, and substituting
secretary of state for Ireland, in when
case provision would be made for the
residence of royal prince IN the
country during part of the year, Inc
Tory position is that of Offering to do
about everything a Dublin Parliament
would do and denying such parlia-
ment because il would be an lnstru-
ment of complete political divorce. 1t
will be the Fart of political wisdom for
the Irish members 10 accept these re
forms or all they can secure OF them,
lust as Parnell did the Land act OF
1881 for they mean Il long step away
from the historic English policy Oh
governing Ireland as an inferior ana
subjugated people whose only right to
existence was as ltcutiS u IilSl
greed. They would, if adopted fully
and IN good faith, make lrishmen the
equals of Englishmen in the empire,
and if they had been adopted at the
beginning of the union there would
have been no Irish question since.
Moreover, their acceptance now would
not in the least prevent demand for
Home Rule in the shape of Dublin
parliament later. That such overtures
are made is proof of the astuteness OF
Parncls policy of keeping clear of
alliances with English parties. The
ParneIlites or Redmondites are now of
course ready to accept and it is not at
all likely that Mr.. Mccarthy and his
followers can successfully stand out,
though acceptance would be somewhat
awkward for them because of the close
connection that has grown up between
them and the Liberal organization IN
the last two or three years,