The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-20
viii Irish Landlords Favor Home
Rule?

VIII Irish Landlords Favor Home
Rule?
An influential section of the Irish land
owners seem to have made up their
minds to cooperate with the Nationalist
in an attempt to secure large measure
of self government for Ireland The land
lords who are thus willing to renounce
opposition to Home Rule, in principle, If
not in name, are those who during the
agitation which preceded the. passage
OF the last Land Purchase Act, were
represented by Lord DUNRAvEN's Land
Conference Committee, which is gener-
ally credited with having been the chief
instrumentality in persuading the Union
list Government to adopt Mr.. WYNDHAM's
scheme for converting Irish tenants into
peasant proprietors.
The Dunraven Land Conference Com
mittee was brought together the other
day at Dublin in final meeting convoked
for the purpose Of announcing its dis
solution. But, while the members recog-
nized that their original task had been
performed when the Wyndham Land
Purchase bill became law, they e1-
pressed the conviction that much re-
manned to be done by them in other
directions, if they desired to assure the
welfare and progress Of Ireland. Ac-
cordingly, the committee transformed
itself into an Irish Reform Association, y
which it is hoped will become the nu-
oleus of a new party, drawn from the
moderate men on both sides. The pro-
gramme of the association, which has
since been published, declares that,
while firmly maintaining that the par
liamentary union between Great Britain
and Ireland is essential to the political
stability of the empire and to the pros
perity of the two islands, the members
believe, nevertheless, that such union
is compatible with the devolution to
ireland Of larger measure Of local gov
eminent than she now possesses. The
programme goes on to say that such
devolution, while avoiding matters of
imperial concern, and subjects Of COM
mon interest to the Kingdom as whole,
would be beneficial to Ireland, and would
relieve the Imperial Parliament of a
mass Of business with which it cannot
now deal satisfactorily, and which now
occupies it's time, to the detriment Of
much more important affairs.
II this programme be closely scanned,
il will be obvious that the local gov
eminent desired for Ireland by Lord
DUNRAvEN and his friends is no mere e1-
tension Of the system Of county and dis
trict councils established in Ireland
when Mr.. GERALD BALFopR was Chief
Secretary. What the new association
contemplates is evidently a Dublin
Legislature which should deal with
matters exclusively Irish, whereas ques-
tons affecting the whole Of the United
Kingdom would be dealt with in the Par
lament at Westminster, where Ireland
would continue to be represented. In
other words, the project advocated is
substantially identical with that EN-
bodied by Mr.. GLADSTONE in his second
Home Rule bill, which went through
the House Of Commons In 1893 but
was rejected by the House of Lords. Mr..
GLADSTONE, it may be recalled, asserted
that such legislature as he purposed
to create in Dublin would not be irrecon-
cilable with a firm maintenance of par
liamentary union between Great Britain
and Ireland. PROFOUND such doctrine
in the United States would be to preach
to the converted. Under our Federal
Constitution, which has been operative
for lis years, the State Legislatures, on
the one hand, and the two Houses Of
Congress, on the other, have their respec-
tive fields of legislation; and, although
between the two sets of legislators there
has been friction, as in the case Of Null
fication, and even conflict, as in the
memorable instance Of Secession, dec
AIDES have passed since any incidents OF
the kind have been apprehended,.
1t is true that if local legislature
were conceded to Ireland, both Scotland
and Wales would be likely to demand
similar concessions, while the inhabi-
tants of England proper would naturally
insist that their special interests should
be cared for by lawmakers of their own.
nc lIllpCl al hhC wi >oh-
gress, would confne itself to strictly
Federal business, in which the whole of
the United Kingdom would be con-
cerned. To describe such plan as i'm
practicable is absurd, seeing that it has
long been practissd, not only in the
United States, but in Austria-H Hungary
and in Switzerland.
What the Irish Reform Association
proposes is a reversion to the home
rule all round suggestion which at one
timc it was hoped might constitute a
basis for the reunion Of the Gladstonians
and the Liberal Unionists. That many
Liberals would view it with approval
was to be expected, but what is note
worthy about the present movement lie
that it is started by Irish landlords. who
are usually regarded as Unionists TO
man. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose
that the programme Of the Irish Land
Association will provoke no violent CON-
from some members Of the