has been their practice to do so. With regard to the personal safety of those who travel by their lines, they make no demur in unreservedly falling in with the requirements of the Board of Trade; but as regards the rates and charges allowed them by Parliament, and which are the only security for the colossal expenditure provided by all classes in the country in the construction of the railways, they do very strongly protest against arbitrary interference by the Board of Trade or Parliament, and they further most earnestly contend that, as regards their position in respect of the administration of the law, they should not be placed at a disadvantage with that which is held by other persons and interests throughout the country.

VOL. XLIX.

3 N

L. L. DILLWYN.

THE IRISH DIFFICULTY.

THE favourable reception accorded by the press to the article on

this subject, admitted anonymously to the March number of this REVIEW by the kindness of the editor, has encouraged the writer to place before the public some further considerations on this important subject, the result of exceptional opportunities of gauging the feeling both of the Northern and Southern population of the sister island.

The important principles then enforced were, that any scheme of Home Rule that will satisfactorily solve the Irish difficulty must be based on strictly equitable principles, must be fair alike to the agricultural and Roman Catholic population of the South, to the wealthy and Protestant manufacturing population of the North, as well as to the people of Great Britain; and that the advantages proposed to be conceded to Ireland must be such as, if demanded, may with safety be granted to Scotland and Wales.

The present is unquestionably a most important crisis in our nation's history, and it behoves every lover of his country to contribute his best efforts to the solution of this difficult problem, sinking all party feeling and political prejudice. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that upon the satisfactory solution of this question depends the welfare both of the Irish and English nations, possibly even the integrity of the British empire.

Want of justice in the treatment of the Southern population of Ireland by the Imperial Legislature has in times past been the fruitful source of our present trouble; but allowing this, it appears now as if many of our politicians are prepared to attempt to repair the admitted wrong at the cost of injustice to all the other parts of the empire. If we study the expressed views of extreme partisans on either side, we find some who maintain that

but little, if any, alteration of the relations between the two kingdoms is needed, and that to restore peace and prosperity all that is required is a firm administration of the present law: they appear altogether to ignore the fact that this view has long prevailed and been acted upon for generations, resulting only in perpetually recurring coercive measures which have left Ireland in its present state of disturbance and discontent, and made the treatment of that country by Great Britain a byword and reproach amongst the nations of the earth. They also ignore the fact that under similar treatment half the landlords of Ireland have become non-resident, and that in only thirty years, from 1850 to 1880, ninety thousand farmers were evicted from their holdings, rendering homeless half a million of persons, probably one-third of the whole agricultural population of the South. They seem, moreover, to take no account of the changed condition of political representation, and that a compact and determined band of Irish representatives are prepared to go to almost any extreme in furthering the aspirations of their country, who will assuredly meet with much sympathy and support from the democracy, which now dominates the English constituencies. On the other hand, there are many extreme politicians who profess to look upon all the evils from which Ireland is suffering as the result of the English connection. These seem prepared to sacrifice the rights of all other classes to the interests of the agriculturists, and even to risk the dismemberment of the magnificent empire which has been handed down to us, in their determination to try some revolutionary experiment. They equally ignore the facts of history, and fail to take into account that, in spite of all that has been wrong in the legislation of the past, the people of Ireland are, as a whole, far better off than at any former period; that at no former time could that country have passed through such a series of bad harvests, nor encountered such competition in the sale of its principal products, as it has experienced during the last seven years, without infinitely greater suffering and wretchedness than have actually followed. They ignore the fact that a large section of the country is not only seriously over-populated, but that the agricultural labourers, who used to bring back wealth from harvesting in England, have to a great extent lost their occupation; in a word, that destitution and hunger are the chief causes of prevalent political discontent, and that much of this results from sources altogether independent of forms of government.

It is absolutely necessary for politicians who seek satisfactorily to solve the Irish difficulty to weigh carefully every side of this great problem, and while giving due importance to those political disadvantages which demand removal, and endeavouring to meet as far as possible the natural aspirations of the people, to remember

that there are conditions of soil, climate, and congested population, which no political reforms will touch, and the evil effects of which will be grievously aggravated by any legislation tending to expatriate the wealthier classes, and to prevent capital from being employed in the country.

Since the previous article was written, the two Government Bills for the establishment of Home Rule and the purchase of land in Ireland have been introduced, and it is hardly an exaggeration to say that they have been met with almost universal dissatisfaction; for though personal devotion to Mr. Gladstone has secured from his party a certain amount of nominal support, yet even that support has been given with hesitation and doubt, and with suggestions of amendments to his measures which clearly show that, but for the prestige of his great name, the whole scheme would have met with summary condemnation.

It is, however, scarcely to be regretted that his schemes should have been introduced, for though undoubtedly unacceptable in their present form, familiarity with the idea of extensive alterations in the political relations of the two countries, which the discussion of them has induced, may pave the way to a satisfactory settlement.

In their present form, both Bills are undoubtedly unsatisfactory, the principles upon which they are founded violating not only justice, but the most cherished principles of the Liberal party; and to constitute an Irish Parliament on the lines proposed could only result ultimately in a total separation of the two countries, as well as in untold injury to both. Yet, by the introduction of some important amendments, even the present Bills may be so altered as to satisfy the just claims of Ireland, and without injustice to the other nationalities.

The first error in the scheme is undoubtedly its provision for the banishment or dismissal of the Irish representatives from the Imperial Parliament, whilst Ireland is still subjected to taxation for Imperial purposes. To deprive this important portion of the United Kingdom of all voice in the Imperial Parliament, whilst it is subject to taxation and liable to suffer equally with the remainder of the kingdom from any error in Imperial policy, is to degrade it to the position. of a mere dependency; and the fact that the Home Rule party at Westminster have made no protest against such degradation appears utterly inexplicable, unless indeed they look upon this scheme as only a means of obtaining entire separation. It would be otherwise incomprehensible how any Irish patriot could welcome legislation which would deprive his country of the influence it now possesses in the control of Imperial affairs. But whilst it is impossible to banish the representatives of the Irish nation from the Imperial Parliament so long as Ireland continues a portion of the United Kingdom, it is equally impossible in justice to the remainder of the

empire that Ireland, having obtained a statutory Parliament and full control over her own affairs, should still retain the same number of representatives as at present. This would be to make the Irish representatives the rulers of the United Kingdom. The only practical solution of this difficulty is that to which the popular judgment is tending-namely, that until some general system of Imperial federation has been established, the number of representatives sent by Ireland to the Imperial Parliament should be regulated by the proportion of its contributions to the Imperial treasury.

If possible, a still more serious fault in Mr. Gladstone's scheme is the treatment which he accords to the Protestant minority, especially to those resident in the north of Ireland. Its provisions would, if carried out, subject the whole of the Protestants of Ireland to the will of the dominant party in the Dublin Parliament : this party being practically representative of the priest-led peasants. of the South.

The proposed safeguards—the two orders, the property qualification, the minority veto-are not only bad in themselves, but opposed to the democratic spirit of the age. They would certainly soon be removed as unworkable, while even during their existence they would fail to afford any real protection. The new government in Ireland would possess full power of taxation, the appointment of the judges, the organizing and control of the police; and as it would depend for its very existence upon the favour of the impoverished agriculturists of the South, led by the priests, the more wealthy and Protestant population of the North would undoubtedly be looked upon as a fair subject for taxation or veiled pillage. And as the judges would also be practically nominees of the priests, Protestants would be deprived of all judicial security; even the police being the servants of those whom Protestants have for generations regarded as their hereditary enemies.

It is unreasonable to expect that the wealthy intelligent population of the North would quietly submit to such degradation, and allow themselves to be separated from their kindred across the sea, or that the Protestants of England would stand calmly by and see Protestantism itself placed under the foot of Romanism, or consent to that large population, with which they are connected by ties of religion and of blood, being subjected to the tyranny of those who delight to describe themselves as aliens, and whom Mr. Gladstone himself, in one of his most unfortunate expressions, has described as foreigners.

Coercion of all kinds, even when necessary, is undoubtedly a misfortune, but certainly it would be the climax of cynical baseness for Great Britain to coerce the Protestant North of Ireland, in order to compel the inhabitants to submit to a hated union, which would in