The Irish standard., 1905-06-03

dinner given him by the Reform Club
in Manchester on May IL, in which he
demonstrated that Ireland was ruined
by English rule, and then defended
his plan for continuing it. No Ma
tionalist could adduce stronger argu-
mcnts as to the necessity for over
throwing British domination and yet
Lord Dunravcn's plea was for the con-
tinuance, with slight notifications of
the thing which he points out has
caused the ruin he dcplorcs.
Lord Dunravcn commenced his
speech by admitting that he felt in Il
somewhat novel position, coming from
the Carlton Club, London, to the Re
form Club, Manchester, and he had no
doubt that some of the deductions he
made from the facts he observed in
ireland would not meet with the APP
,-lion--Masa the great thing in the man
agement of the affairs of Il country,
and there was no unfortunate COM
mlnity on the face of the globe in
which administration was so bad as
ii was in Ireland. There never would
be sound administration in Ireland un-
til the Irish people were given some
control over the administration.
On that side of the channel they
had on the whole expansion in all di-
rections, and great prosperity. In
Ireland there was not Il sign of pros
perity. The best brains in the coun
try were fleeing from it as from a
plaguestrickcn city. The Irish birth
rate was the lowest of any community
on the civilized globe. What was the
cause of all this? They in England
were largely responsible. Then, what
was to be done? Three policies were
possible. One way was to do nothing
and il the people made themselves I'M
pleasant put them down. That was
the policy of the old Ascendancy Par
ty in Ireland, and it appeared to be
the policy which the government were
inclined to support.
Then there was the policy of repeal.
The third policy recognized the close
Independence Of the two islands,
which was properly expressed by
Legislative union, and also recognized
that Ireland differentiated SO COM
pletcly from England that her affairs
could only be conducted by Irishmen
for themselves. Give them the cdu-
cation OF elf-govcrnmcnt, and they
would secure the strength and vitality
to enable them to rcgenerate the coun-
try. Mr.. Balfour had made a point
of saying that the Imperial Parlia
ment could do more for Ireland than
an Irish Parliament could do. Up to
a certain point he Lord Dunraven)
agreed that the Imperial Parliament
could do much for Ireland that an
Irish Parliament could not do, with it's
strength, wealth and power, but the
converse was equally true, and there
were a great many things that the
Imperial Parliament could not do, and
that an Irish legislative body of some
kind could do. 1t was true that an
Irish Parliament would be too small
to do some things, but it was equally
true that the Imperial Parliament was
much too busy to do some things.
The Devolution Scheme had been
described as being far worse than Re-
peal, because it did not satisfy the
extreme people. That was as big a
compliment as could be paid. The
object of the Reform Association was
to construct a moderate platform, on
which moderate men of all classes and
creeds could meet and discuss the sub
ject, and see If they could not devise
some means for dealing with the sit
uation in Ireland, politically and other 4
WISE He admitted there might be
much in the proposals that could be i
fairly we'll criticised and objected to.
They had never pretended to formu-
late an absolutely definite scheme. |
They had only put forward PROPOSE
tions and principles, and asked for