Arizona republican., 1902-11-25
How England Treats Ireland.


 Some of the London papers seem to be awaking at last to the fact that England cannot with safety ignore in definitely the merits of the Irish ques- tion." The London Speaker. answering
 it's own question, How do we govern Ireland?" says:
 Tt is the implication of UnicniSm that we must refuse to govern Ireland by the public opinion of Ireland and decide to govern it by the public opin- ion of England. In effect, we govern it by neither, but by private and frag- mentary interests. The English people are incapable oi sustained attention 70 the condition of Ireland; they have their own problems and Dreoccupa- tions; and they have, too, their dreams of empire and conquest, and the proud desola tion of freedom. For the Condi- tion of Ireland their mind is not con- stant and alert, and so true is this that it is undeniable that it would be possi- ble to establish torture in that country without exciting the parOXysms of an ger and indignation that clerical edu cation bill produces in England. There have been moments when this apathy has disappeared, but it is only at inter vals of centuries that any nation pro- duces a statesman like MT. Gladstone, who can make great masses of men fee! the wrongs they suffer Under ordi- nary conditions, public opinion abdi- cates, or rather, it rules vicariously by private interests. For in sharp con trast with this indifference in the state there is the strenuous energy of an ascendency faction in Ireland which has thousand avenues to the ear Of England. Its power is ubiquitous.
 The landlord party in Ireland rep resents Ireland in the house Of lords; it represents Ireland, too, in society, in the rich classes that own the press, and in the vast world made Up of all the underlying parts of rank and fashion. It is firmly intTenched in the cabinet. and the Irish secretary, a man who enjoys a certain legendary rep utation because he is more cultivated than his party and more elegant than the financial cabal with which he con sorts, is quite unable to move out of the atmosphere of this ruling caste. This is the only Ireland that is in con- tact with English opinion. These men have a direct and personal interest in government by force, and that direct interest bears down all the pressure of a spasmodic enthusiasm for justice or good government. The result of that unequal contest is seen in our tOlera- tion of a system under Which all of Burke's sublime phrases about the eternal proportions Of justice had as much meaning to Q starving outcast as the parade of law and order can have to the men who live out their lives under the shadow of a system that is making havoc of Ireland. and has elevated jury packing and all the accustomed methods of unjust tyranny into a finished statesmanship."
 The London Pilot, "a critical re- view" under the heading. The True Irish Policy" says:
 The independence of Ireland-and for all practical purposes home rule and independence are the sane thing must must be won, if at all, at the point of the bayonet. But in recognizing this We recognize further that we. are laying very grave responsibility upon our selves. We deliberately withhold from Irishmen what we should not withhold from Canadians CT Australians, and in so far as we do this we place an in tegral part of the United Kingdom at q grave disadvantage in comparison with an outlying province of the em- pire. The necessity of the case justi- fies us in doing this. but the justifca- ton is strictly co-extensive with the necessity. We can not. as We think. give Ireland a separate parliament and a separate executive without betraying the empire. There is much, however, that we can do without the empire be- ing any the worse for it; much that Irishmen desire to have, and that it is in our power to give them. The very fact that we cannot leave Irish
 men to legislate for themselves makes it our duty to legislate for them, where the paramount interest of the empire permits it, on the lines which ! they themselves would follow had they parliament of their own. The law makes must be the imperial parlia- ment, but the laws themselves should be such as an Irish parliament would make. It is only where the action of an Irish parliament would expose the empire to grave, perhaps fatal risks | that this rule should be disregarded In every ether case we can and ought to conform to it, and until We do con- form to it we shall not have carried out the true UniOnist policy. When the home rule liberals declare that the Unionist experiment has failed. we re- ply that it has never yet been tried. We wish we could entertain any defi- nite hope of seeing the true Irish policy carried out by the present government. But we can not"