The Irish standard., 1905-10-07
JOHN REDMOND
Irish Leader Discusses Present
Financial System.
Home Rule He Says Is the Only
Question.

| For the Irish people there is only one
| question, and that question is Home
Rule, says John Redmond in Tom
Watson's Magazine for September. The
Irish party stands irrevocably commit
ted to Home Rule. Its members have
been sent to the House of Commons
try. From that attitude nothing can
| change them. With us it is not a mat
ter of expediency; it is a matter Of
principle and necessity. Writing with
full authority and responsibility, in the
! name Of the whole Irish National par
ty, l say that the Irish party has not
departed one hairs breadth from the
position taken up in 1886 and 1893.
say that today We would be willing, as
we were in 1886 and 1898, to accept
those bills, as bringing to an end for
ever, as We would all hope, wretched
| and blood-stained chapter of English
| misrule, and consequent Irish disloyal-
ty and resistance.
To recapitulate and summarize the
| main features of the system of rule in
| Ireland which, in my judgment, makes
Home Rule an urgent and vital ques-
tion today: The present system of rule
is unconstitutional, quite apart alto
gether from it's tainted origin. 1t is in
| it's everyday working and practice un-
| constitutional The majority of the
people ruled have no power in the gov
ernment of the country. The country
| is goverened by a minority. Represen-
tation in the House of Commons has
| been reduced to a farce. Five men
| from a small corner of Ulster have
| more power than eighty-six sent from
the rest of Ireland. We are under the
| British Parliament, but we have not in
| Ireland the benefit of the British sys-
| tenn. We are suffering under perma-
| nent disability in the form of an ex-
ceptional law which does not exist in
| any other portion of the British En-
pire, under which, at the caprice and
| will of single man, trial by jury may
be suspended and trial by paid servants
| ment substituted for it. 1t is bad gov
ernment and it is government which
does not fulfill any single one of the
elementary duties of government.
For the last one hundred years it has
been absolutely out of sympathy with
the opinion of the mass of the people,
| Nowhere, except in Ireland, is there a
system which is thus divorced from the
confidence and control of the people
who are ruled. For the last thirty
years a majority of Irish representa-
tives has been returned pledged to
overturn the existing system, but in the
present government of Ireland public
opinion in Ireland is a negligible
quantity. No Irishman is allowed
to serve in any really RESPONSE
Bile position in the government of the
country, unless he is known opponent
Of the wishes of the majority.
Ireland today is governed by bu-
reaucracy more divorced from SYM
pathy with the majority of the people
and responsibility to the people than
the system which Englishmen are fond
Of denouncing In Russia. Ireland is
governed by network of public
boards, all of which are nominated by
Dublin Castle. The Chief Secretary is
president of them, but he can only
| nominally be responsible for their ac-
tions. These boards, filled with men,
bers of the ascendency party, have
been omnipotent in the government Of
Ireland.
Is it any wonder that, in these cir
| cumstances, no class in Ireland is sat
| isfied with this rule? Fifty years ago
a great Tory Irishman-Chief Justice
Whiteside-used these words: HE
| was compelled by respect for truth to
admit that the government of Ireland
! was very inefticiently conducted. He
was a Protestant and a Conservative.
| Well, he must say that We're Ireland as
far removed from England as Canada,
the system of government there could
be blown to pieces as easily as a house
of cards. He would say that the gov
ernment of Ireland was opposed to
lnine-tenths of the industry, intelligence
| and intellect Of the people Of Ireland"
That was said fifty years ago, but
every word of it is as true of the gov
ernment Of Ireland today as it was
then. Unfortunately, the Irish Union
Ii ist disgust in the days of Whiteside,
just as ever since, and today, was 81
fenced by the influence of that system
of place and preferment which alone
has induced the Irish minority to con-
sent to the robbery and misgovernment
of their country. There is only one
way of governing Ireland, and that is
by consent.
The two broad facts which stand
out, plain and indisputable, are that,
since 1894, our population has gone
down, and that our taxation has in-
creased by leaps and bounds. Our pop
lulation today is about 100000 less than
it was in 1894. The total revenue
from Ireland in 1S93-94 was E756S O49