St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-15
THE FATE OF HOME RULE.

The attitude of the British govern
inert upon the home rule Question is
no surprise. It was. of course, a fore
gone conclusion that the Conservative
party, which now has so large a ma
jority and is entrenched firmly in power
for six years to come, would show no
mercy to the demand Of Ireland, oppo-
sition to which is one Of it's cardinal
principles. There will be some trifiing
measures Of remedial legislation ad-
vanced, but any scheme looking toward
the concession of control Of their local
affairs to the Irish people will be turned
down promptly and effectively. 1t is
never particularly cheering or profit
able to remind people who are suffering
the consequences of their own folly of
the mistakes that they have made. The
moral in this case is so obvious and
forcible that it justif1es a departure
from the general rule 1t is the simple
fact that the utter discontinue of the
home rulers grows directly out Of the
unfortunate discussions in their own
ranks, which they have not only per-
mitted, but encouraged - cot
The majority Of the Tories in the
present parliament of Great Britain is
due largely, and probably altogether,
to the split in the ranks Of the Ma
tionalists. AS long as the representa-
tives Of Ireland stood together as a
compact body, sinking all differences
Of opinion and yielding to the firm pol
icy of determined leader, the impress
sion that they made upon public opin-
ion in England was out of all propor-
ton to their numbers. Each party in
turn was threatened with the loss of it's
majority by an alliance of the home
rulers with one or the other Of them,
as the interests Of Ireland might die
tate. But that was the least command
ing advantage of their position. It
counted for a great deal more with
the slow-going Englishman that the
people Of Ireland were a unit in sup
port of home rule. The English know.
from their own experience in centuries
past, and from the historical facts of
the growth Of liberty in their various
colonies, that the united, persistent de-
mand of a people for the right to gov
ern themselves cannot in the end be
resisted successfully. They were pre-
pared, therefore, to fall in with Mr..
Gladstone's suggestion to grant home
rule to Ireland.
If Ireland's attitude had been main
tanned, neither Tory nor Liberal would
have dared, finally, to gainsay that
demand. whatever it might have been
necessary to do to overcome the per-
sonal distaste of the house of lords for
such legislation. When the Irish party
itself went to pieces, when the Nation
alist members ceased to bring to bear
upon English opinion the force of a.
unanimous demand, when their fac
tons ceased to assault the common foe
and turned their guns Upon each other,
the reluctant Briton saw instantly a
way Of escape. He had no longer
fear of the Irish party, and he ceased
to believe in the unalterable devotion
OF the people of Ireland to their cause.
He decided to let them fight out their
differences first, and meantime to dis
| card measures for their relief and look
after his own affairs. The effect Of this
| reaction carried the Conservative party
into power, and made its Irish policy
a certainty.
The duty Of Ireland now is to set to
| work to rebuild, painfully, the fabric
Of liberty which they had so nearly
completed when their own fatal dis
cord shook it to ruins. They have had
pointed out to them, by their own ex-
perience. the conditions under which
alone they can hope to be free. There
is no future for home rule, 1t is plain,
until all divisions of opinion in Ireland's
politics are sunk out Of sight, and it's
people come once more to the British