LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PROF. DICEY ON UNIONIST DELUSIONS.—VIII. [To TIM EDITOR Or can ..1317014.1.03."j
Sra,—My analysis of Unionist delusions is at an end; let me sum up its results and point its lesson.
It is a delusion that the "concessions" hoped for or extorted from Mr. Gladstone can reunite the Liberal Party. Of these concessions, the one threatens dishonour to the English nation, the other entails weakness on the English Parliament. The one concession which might put an end to the dissent of Liberal Unionists, is Mr. Gladstone'e honest conversion from the Home- role heresy. Such a change of faith is a moral impossibility; it would of itself disqualify Mr. Gladstone for the position of a. party leader.
It is a delusion to suppose that the Home-rule controversy can be terminated with satisfaction to Unionists by a com- promise or transaction. A true compromise is an impossibility. Maintenance of the Union and the Parliamentary independence of Ireland are opposed to each other no less in fact than in. logic. A sham compromise is merely a misguiding name for the concession to Ireland of a narrow, restricted form of Home-rule. But in this matter half-measures are not safe measures; if Ireland is to obtain Home-rule, it is the interest no less of Great Britain than of Ireland that she should receive the widest measure of Parliamentary independence compatible with the safety of Great Britain ; on this point—though on this point alone—my opinion appears to be supported by the authority of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy. A compromise is in prin- ciple a surrender, and a surrender which for the sake of appearing to be a compromise, is made on terms which deprive concession at once of its grace and of its possible benefits.
It is a delusion to draw from the undoubted fact that Separa- tion is opposed to the true interests of Ireland,—first, the hazardous inference that Irishmen will never desire national independence, and next, the demonstrably groundless conclu- sion that Home-rule in Ireland threatens no serious danger to England. At each point the argument breaks down. Irish- men, like other human beings, often entertain wishes opposed to their true interest ; hence Irishmen may well desire Separation.
The very circumstances, moreover, which forbid Ireland to claim national independence must suggest, and, indeed, have suggested, to Irishmen the expediency of dissolving the United Kingdom into a Confederation ; but Federalism is far more dangerous to England than Irish independence. Home-rule, then, either- means Separation, or else means national disintegration. Sepa- ration is the loss of a limb; Federalism means assured paralysis, and probable death.
It is a delusion to dream that Home-rule in Ireland will bring peace to England ; it will ensure disquiet, it threatens, protracted revolution.
It is a delusion to hold that the movement in favour of Home- rule may be, so to speak, outflanked by extending to Ireland a system of extended Local Self-government. Extended municipal franchises are a totally different thing from Home-rule. Hence the widest scheme of Local Self-government will never meet the desires of Nationalists. That it will confer any benefit on Ireland is open to the gravest doubt ; that it must weaken the- hands of the Executive Government, and thus increase the difficulties of England, is a certainty.
It is a delusion that the co-operation of Liberals with Con-
servatives in defence of national unity is a disgrace. Whoever- adopts the watchword, "No alliance with Tories," misunder- stands the nature and objects of modern party divisions, places the interest of a faction above the welfare of the State, and con- tradicts the fundamental axiom of popular government,—the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. Politicians, moreover, who shudder at co-operation between Liberals and Tories, forget that Unionists must in the long-run accept the friendship of Lord, Salisbury or alliance with Mr. Parnell. Co-operation with Lord Salisbury entails, it may be, inconvenience, but involves no loss of character; coalition with Mr. Parnell will bring on Liberal Unionists, as it has brought on Gladstonians, all the deserved disrepute which falls upon constitutionalists when they adopt the ends and sanction the methods of revolutionists and law-breakers. Character in England is strength ; the party which in moments of trial and at all costs preserves character, ensures for itself in the future the certainty of influence and of power.
To escape from delusions is to recognise truth, and Unionists
who escape from the dominion of fallacies generated in the main by halneartednese, will soon, amidst all the perplexities and entanglements of the present situation, discern where lies for them the path of honour and of wisdom, and what are the virtues which must specially be cultivated by men bent upon travelling along an arduous road towards a noble goal. Concessions, com- promises, or transactions are ruin; a bold adoption of the boldest form of Rome-rule, or the resolute defence of national unity, are the only alternatives worthy of consideration by any man of sense and vigour. No honest Unionist can, makes under the necessity imposed by crushing and final defeat, advocate Home-rule. Every honest Unionist will therefore now, during the time of battle and (despite small failures) of success, decline to hear of parleyings, conferences, or negotia- tions. Every Unionist most stand firm by the Union. But the defence of national unity, while it is the first, will not appear to any Unionist to be the sole duty of the day. To the complaints or aspirations of the labouring classes throughout every part of the United Kingdom, it behoves statesmen to give a willing and intelligent hearing. Wise men of all parties now accept the fact that to settle finally on fair terms the tenure of land in Ireland is to go to the root of Irish difficulties. To achieve such a settlement is the highest duty and the highest interest of Unionists; their leaders are the only body of states- men who can hope to perform this gigantic task ; they entertain no idea either of liberty or of generosity which is unconnected with honesty and justice ; they therefore can carry through a measure of reform without letting it degenerate into a scheme of violence and confiscation, will sternly enforce law because law is justice, and will take care that innovations carried out for the sake of national objects shall be made at the cost of the nation. Unionists, again, will know that the virtues which the times imperatively demand are firmness, constancy, and moderation. To the small but honoured body of men on whose steadfastness depends the welfare of the nation, each Unionist will give his unqualified support. He will not let himself be elated by trifles; he will not fancy the country lost because Mr. Brunner can add his vote to the forms -of obstruction ; he will not think the battle for the Union finished because Mr. Fellowes can now shout, "Hear, hear !" when Mr. Robertson exposes the fallacies of the Opposi- tion. To Unionists, indeed, worthy of the cause in -which they are enrolled, even mischances will not always appear unmixed evils. The energy—the laudable energy—of Irish Members has turned and will turn English elections. These triumphs of Parnellism are in themselves deplorable; but the particular development of Irish activity should be hailed with infinite satisfaction. Every time a Pareellite addresses an English constituency, he shakes his own cause ; he imitates Hogerth's elector, who drunk with zeal for his candidate cute through the signboard on which he himself is seated. His con- -duct confutes his principles. In the House of Commons he may shoat, "I am an alien," but by his appearance on the hustings he exercises his rights as a member of the United Kingdom, and proclaims that he is a citizen of the greatest and freest among European States. There is not, again, any reason to lament that a score of young Conservatives or Liberals .Should leave the sittings of Parliament that they may meet their Irish opponents face to face before the electors of England. The fuss and fury of a canvass are an evil ; but that English politicians should accustom themselves to express in plain language the plain thoughts which tell with a popular audience, is a good, and a great good. From an honest interchange of ideas between honest English gentlemen and honest English voters, nothing 'but good can ensue. If the country labourers or town artisans gain much, the speakers who address rustics and workmen gain more. It is far better that youth- ful Unionists should learn from Mr. T. P. O'Connor in contests on the hustings the secret of popular eloquence and popular argument, than that in the House of Commons they should learn pompous jocosity from Sir William Harcourt, or brutal manners from Dr. Tanner. English imitation of Irish energy might well be carried further. The first body of English Members who plead the Unionist cause at an Irish elec- tion will render a memorable service to the country. Their labours will not immediately win votes, but their boldness and toil will not be thrown away, for the presence of English politi- cians at an Irish election would prove to electors—who, whatever their faults, are not dall.wittel—that to Englishmen the whole United Kingdom is a common country. To look at the brighter sides of a dark prospect is, it must be admitted, if a necessary, not always an easy achievement. Opponents who detest Mr. Gladstone's policy may admire his unbounded hopefulness ; it is full of instruction. When General Grant first commanded an army, he was, he tells us, depressed by the constant effort to anticipate the possible moves of a skilful opponent. His anxiety found relief when he at last became im- pressed with the conviction that the Confederate commander was probably at that moment tormented by the attempt to anticipate the movements of General Grant. He thereupon gave his mind in calmness to making the most of his own advantages. In any great contest, advantages of position and of fortune are more or less equally distributed. For Unionists, the great thing is to realise their own strength. On the side of the Separatists are all the arts of rhetoric, and all the gains conferred by epecious phrases ; they have at their head a leader of admitted talent and of undoubted enthusiasm, who can always cover poverty of thought with exuberance of words, and weakness of argument with copiousness of sophism, and of sophism the more dangerous because it has imposed on the speaker's own judgment. Separatists have appealed, and with success, to some of the meanest and some of the best parts of human nature. They have appealed to ignorance, to levity, to hopefulness, to sympathy, and to generosity. Who shall deny the power of these sentiments ? Unionists count, indeed, on their side, the greatest living master of English speech; but though he shows the fire, he no longer possesses the physical energy of youth. They must therefore meet rhetoric not by eloquence, but by plain statement of truth. Nor is the cause they advocate one which directly arouses popular emotion. Still, they have on their side most powerful allies. Knowledge is stronger than ignorance. Sense and reason are meant to control, and— incredible though it may appear—do in the long-run control, the impulses of sentiment. Indignation at wrong.doing and resentment at oppression, even though the oppression be exer- cised by the poor, and be miscalled "exclusive dealing," are as legitimate and as powerful feelings as sympathy for suffering or pity for distress. Generosity is one of the graces of human life ; but common honesty and common justice ought to curb, and can curb, the impulses of generosity, for common honesty and common justice are strong with all the strength which governs the universe—I am, Sir, &c., A. V. Decay.
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