The Northern Guardian. — 1893-02-15 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

MANCHESTER HOUSE AND COLISEUM, WEST HARTLEPOOL.  motion is made to reduce their salaries by so much, and you will find that every time in Ireland a judge gives an unpopular decision he becomes a poorer man; so that at last they will get to understand that they are paid by the job, and that the exact amount of acquiescence they show in the views of the Administration of the day is to determine the amount of salary which they are to receive." That slay appear, to those who do not understand Irish politics and politicians, a somewhat exaggerated view to take of the case. But we all know the rooted antipathy which the Irish nation feels towards authority. Judges, constables, bailiffs, every man employed to see that the law is respected, is regarded with hatred. At Gweedore an inspector of police was brutally murdered for attempting to execute a warrant, and we may be sure that when the judges come under the authority of the Irish Parliament, to have anything like a peaceful existence they will be compelled to doctor their verdicts according to popular taste. Jay Gould at one time kept a couple of Supreme Court judges in his pay. According to Mr Balfour, the Irish Parliament will secure the complete submission of the jualges by keeping them without pay. Mr Balfour very rightly ridiculed as unworkable the complicated arrangement under which three different kinds of constituencies were to be introduced into Ireland, and pointed out, as we did yesterday, that the Legislative Council affords not the slightest protection to the loyalist minority. His summary of the upshot of the measure is worth quoting. "What," he asks, "is Britain's share of this balance-sheet of disaster? We begin by paying £17,000,000 to these gentlemen for the privilege of wrecking our Constitution. We deprive ourselves of all freedom in the management of our own taxation, in the delicate matters with which taxation is concerned. We permit our deliberations in the House of Commons to be maimed and even rendered ridiculous by Irish members, who are to vote and are not to vote, who may take part in this debate, and may not take part in that debate, who may turn out a Ministry, and who man not vote on a Roads Bill. Above all, Britain Oyes up the prospect which has been held out to her that, at all events, we shall have peace from these Irish controversies, and that our time may be given to our own affairs." The scheme could not be summed up more cogently. Mr Gladstone's proposals, the more they are studied, increase in difficulty and workableness. The measure will simply be a surrender of all the law-abiding Irishmen to the forces of disorder and terrorism. It is all very well for Mr Gladstone to say that provision will be made against the Irish Parliament having the power to pass Acts affecting religious liberty; but the Premier must know that where the heart is willing religious liberty can be crushed without the aid of an Act of Parliament, and we have not the slightest doubt were the bill passed Ulster would suffer the grossest tyranny at the hands of the Nationalists. Mr Gladstone, as Mr Balfour said last night, is reversing the  order of things which has built up every great State. It is not by chipping off a piece of Empire here and a piece of Empire there that you can cement and strengthen a nation. It is by Union, and Union alone. Mr Gladstone, however, as the last act of his life, is trying the experiment of going in the face of all history, and of doing what all history has proved to be the commencement of the decline of empires.