The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-06
WIN Ireland Get an Instnllment Of
- Home Rule?

We hope that there Ii foundation for the
rsport, now repeated by the Dublin Dolly
Chronicle on the authority Of member of
the present Government. that Premier
BAtFoUR contemplates a material extern
sion Of local government in Ireland which
will provide for the establishment of a
legislative council in the Irish capital.
This legislative council is to cap the edi-
fec Of which the County Councils furnish
the substructure, and, according to the
report, will have control. not only OF such
local matters as railways, gas and water
works, but, what is much more impor-
tant, Of the Irish constabulary. For this
new departure on the part Of the Balfour
Ministry there are several cogent reasons,
which, although not mentioned in the
kilograms. will at once suggest them
selves.
Before we call to mind these reasons,
we may point out that il the Unionist
Government has been for the first time
persuaded to take an intelligent and
friendly view Of Irish questions, the fact
b probably due in no small measure to
tho signal change in the opinions Of Mr..
7. ". RUSSELL, an Ulster Member Of Par
lament. who vehemently opposed both
q the Home Rule bills brought forward
by Mr.. GLADSTONE. Not only orally
from many a platform, but in a book
which has had very wide circulation Mr..
RUSSELL has frankly owned that his per-
sonal convictions concerning the aims of
the Irish Nationalist have been radically
modified.
As regards the agrarian question, for
instance, he was formerly sturdy cham
pion Of the Irish landlords on high politi-
cal grounds, believing them to be fighting
for their country's good. not their own.
He has since arrived at an opposite con-
clusion, and Is therefore a Jealous advo-
cate Of the new Land Purchase BILL by
which, II it becomes law, the present
race Of Irish landlords will be extirpated.
Not that even now he is actuated by any
vindictive motive in his agrarian pro-
gramme: he would Gust the landlords not
b. compulsion, much less by confscation,
but through the dulcet pressure Of an
irresistible bride.
Il Is doubtless, however, the reversal
Of his attitude toward the Nationalist
+, leaders that has most profoundly infiu-
/, enced tho position now attributed to the
Unionist Government with regard to
Irish political questions. Mr.. RUSSELL
has said. over his signature. that he
formerly misjudged the principal repre-.
ssntatives OF the Irish people. II in 1885,
and 1897 he was opposed to Home Rule
project, IL was because he assumed an
Irish Parliament to be impossible with
such leaders "a were then at the front
He now says frankly that he misunder.
stood the intellectual and moral qualifi.
cations OF those men. Having read Irish
history over again. he says, and far more
carefully, he now sees things in wholly
different light. Now for the first time he
understands men like Mr.. JOHN z. RED.
hoHp, Mr.. DILLON, Mr.. 0'BRIEN and Mr.
HEALY. He does not concur in all theil
aims and aspirations; he does not ap'
prove, for example, Of total separation
OF Ireland from Great Britain; on the
contrary, he believes that, for imperia
pusposes, Ireland should continue TO b
rspressnted In the Parliament Ct West
minister. He can thoroughly understand