MR. MORLEY ON THE FUTURE OF THE IRISH ALLIANCE.
" rir IHE Liberal Party," said Mr. Morley in his speech at JL Manchester on Wednesday, "if I read aright the utterances of public men, is ierevocably committed to the effective prosecution of the policy of self-government for Ireland," and he had previously given, with the utmost frank- ness, his reation for believing that the best mode of sealing the compact with Ireland would be for the Irish Members to allow the Home-rule Bill to remain in a state of suspended animation during the next SesSion, and to bind the honour of English Members to their cause by getting the Irish votes for popular English measures. "Every single vote you give for a British Reform is a vote for the passing of the Home-rule Bill; every hour that is effectively devoted to English, Scotch, or Welsh Reform is two hours for Home-rule. Irishmen know that the non-introduction of Home-rule in the House of Commons during 1894 makes its success not less but more assured." In other words, Irish self-denial in 1894, on behalf of England, will seal the alliance which English self-denial on behalf of Ireland in 1893 haeformed. That is frank language, and we can find no fault with it except this, that, so far from securing the Liberal Party of the future, it appeals only to the Liberal Party of the present, and that on a most unsound and unstatesmanlike plea. It makes Irishmen say, • As you have voted for our eagerly-desired measure, we will vote for what you desire eagerly, and help you to please your con- etituencies as you have helped us to please ours.' That expresses the essence of the contract, but it does not in the least tend to show that the vague and slipshod. measure which was forced through the House of Commons by the wholesale use of the Closure is one bit more workable or more statesmanlike in the interests of either Ireland or England, than it was before. In effect Mr. Morley says, 'Help us to forget how full of perils and blots that measure was, by thinking of the handsome price you are now paying us for overlooking those dangers and blots, and we will try to forget them too.' We do not deny that the tendency of this appeal is to confuse the issue at the next election, as the issue was confused at the last electicel. Mr. Morley evidently agrees fully with the Unionists that if the appeal to the constituencies were made on the Home-rule Bill alone, there would not be a chance for it. It is only by securing a good large oon- sideration for the overlooking of its manifold pitfalls and false pretences that the English constituencies can be bribed into passing it, just as the bad shilling was passed between the two good half-crowns for not more than five shillings. But is not that a very frank confession that in the English constituencies the Home-rule Bill has already been found. out, and would be repudiated with energy if it were submitted to them on its merits '? Mr. Morley evidently agrees -with the cynical clergyman at the Newcastle Conference who advised. sandwiching Home-rule between two popular English measures, and. getting the English people in that way to swallow it without exactly tasting its true flavour.
We do not, however, believe that, slow as the English people are, they can again be persuaded to swallow the Irish measure, now they know what it is, by the offer of Democratic dainties to take away its evil taste. It is a mere dream of Mr. Morley's that a great English party can be pledged to a policy by pledging its present representatives. These representatives may be changed, and will, we believe, be changed at the next opportunity, if they hold themselves bound to support the Gladstonians by reintroducing the Bill which was riddled through and through in the House of Commons debate. An English party is not a person whose honour can be secured by a bargain, without persuading his reason. Every atom that makes up a party may be exchanged for a different atom. And that process will go on very largely at the next general election, so that the Gladstonian P arty will certainly not return to the House in its present number. This is pre- cisely what Mr. Morley fears, and he hopes that he can blind the British constituencies to the blunders and wrongs of the Home-rule Bill, by giving them a. Session in which to forget these grave miscarriages of justice, and to reflect on the advantages of "One man, one vote," a Registration Bill shortening residence till it renders personation as easy as a change of abode, and a. policy of revolution in Wales and Scotland which will render the Disestablishing of the Church quite a commonplace as well as a fascinating process. Of course these tactics may succeed, but they are, we think, much more likely to fail. However slow Englishmen may be, they are not at all inclined to have dust thrown in their eyes ; and now that they have been frankly told that every hour given by Irishmen to supporting an English popular measure will be equivalent to two hours given to Irish Home-rule, they will count the cost of these English popular measures, and see if they cannot get them at a cheaper rate than the concession of a policy which will land us in far worse quarrels with Ireland than any we have yet endured, and ultimately in civil war, Mr. Morley sees the danger. He avows his belief that there will be formidable difficulty in working the rickety measure which he has helped so materially to produce, though he promises us that all these difficulties will pass away. But English constituencies will note the evident anxiety with which he contemplates the attempt to work the pretentious and. self-contradictory Irish policy of this year's Bill, and. will regard it as confirming all the predictions of Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain. The effect of Mr. Morley's speech will be, we believe, to illus- trate once more the saying, "In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird." Mr. Morley spreads his net with pathetic confidence in the willingness of the English bird to be entrapped. But he exaggerates that willingness, Measures for which every hour given is to count as -hie) hours for Irish Home-rule, will not, we believe, be as attractive as they seem. English electors will suspect the wisdom of buying political advantages at such a cost as that. They will be a great deal more impressed by the horror of Home-rule which Ulster exhibited to the Dnke of Devonshire on Thursday, than they will be by the advantage of Irish support for a few Democratic measures which no doubt they approve, but which they perfectly well know to be quite unnecessary for the pur- pose of securing their various popular rights.
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