TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. BAT,FOUR'S ANNOUNCEMENT.
announcement, as we understand it, which Mr. Balfour made on Monday night during the discussion of the Irish Estimates, that the Government hope to intro- duce an Irish Local Government Bill next Session, con- structed on at least the main lines of the English and Scotch Acts, was one of the greatest possible importance, and we cannot pretend to feel any satisfaction at the prospect. Mr. Balfour has succeeded so completely in his Irish administra- tion, that he has the right to expect support when he takes even a bold step like this. We should be very sorry indeed to weaken in any degree the claim he has on the confidence of the English people. It would be of little use to earn the reputation which Mr. Balfour has justly earned, if he could not count upon it to secure a full share of deference to his counsels, even when he is advocating a policy which looks at first sight imprudent, not to say rash. The difference between a proved statesman and a mere political experimentalist is just this, that the former has shown that he sees beyond other men, and has a right to expect, therefore, that other men will distrust themselves even where they would otherwise entertain the utmost doubts of the sagacity of his advice. And we heartily admit that when Mr. Balfour is confident, he has established his right to a deferential hearing, though he may make light of even the most plausible objections to the course he proposes. But, while we frankly confess that there is no authority on the proper Unionist policy for Ireland which can at all compare with Mr. Balfour's, we must point out how many dangers there certainly are in the course he has just announced, and what are the difficulties with which he will have to deal in extending thus early to Ireland the local liberties which have so recently been accorded to England and Scotland. However reasonable it may be to defer to Mr. Balfour's political judgment, it is at least not less reasonable to estimate carefully the great difficulties in his path, if only that he may appreciate fully the objections which must be raised to his new proposal, and may pre- pare himself adequately to meet them.
In the first place, then, Irish County Councils, like Welsh County Councils, are quite certain to be focuses of extreme political views ; indeed, of the views of those who are most hostile to the control of the central Government, and. most eager to relax the bonds by which the local authorities are to be restrained. If the London County Council, whose tone is moderated by all the confessedly Con- servative feeling of London, has shown itself already very restive under the authority of Parliament, what are we to expect from a like Council in the City of Dublin or in the County of Tipperary ? There can be no kind of ques- tion but that the new local bodies will be centres of very enthusiastic agitation, and that all the tendency of this agitation will be to render the tie between them and the supreme Parliament of the United Kingdom an exceedingly loose and uncertain tie. If this is not the result, the analogy between the action of these local institu- tions in Ireland and in England will be of the very slightest and most untrustworthy description. If this is the result, surely it would be impossible to find more unfortunate conditions for furthering the sedative effect of the Land Act, than in the course of the very first year of its operation to pass another Act which will set up, constitutionally and legally, little eddies of Radical agitation all over the country. What Ireland confessedly wants is an interval of repose in which to create a real peasantry, and to saturate the minds of the new class with the conception of proprietary right. Can it be really wise and prudent to be in such a hurry for the establishment of small Radical debating societies all over the country, that we cannot even wait a clear year after the passing of the Land Act before taking a new step in the direction of replacing the National League by statutory bodies of eager and sanguine meddlers in all kinds of speculative local reform ?
In the next place, it is admitted by the Government that even the "general principles" of the English and Scotch Local Government Acts cannot be followed without one very grave modification, and that is a modification giving to the eentzal Government power to suspend the operations of any County Council or other local body which becomes a centre- of illegal or oppressive agitation, instead of devoting itself to the legitimate local business for which_ it is created.
Now, this condition will make a very grave difference between the Irish Bill and the English and Scotch Acts.
It will make a difference which both Parnellite and Anti- Parnellite Members will feel that they are bound to resent,. and in practice to defeat, and if the Government are not very strenuous in insisting on the new condition, they will defeat it, and succeed in turning these local bodies into. centres of illegal action of some kind, perhaps treasonable,. and certainly oppressive to the great minority of Irishmen who want to live peaceful lives and to abide by the law. Now, if the present Government remain in office, and are firm in insisting on suspending the Work of local Councils which meddle in matters beyond the sphere of their proper duties,. what spectacle shall we have ? The spectacle of sus- pensory decrees intervening in a considerable number of spots throughout three quarters of Ireland to prevent the illegitimate exercise of the new local powers, while in the other quarter of Ireland (Ulster) almost all of them will be permitted to work on undisturbed. Now, will that exercise a soothing effect on Ireland ? Will the spectacle of a Protestant Government interfering to put down the new local life all over Catholic Ireland, and leaving the most Protestant of the four provinces virtually alone„ tend to increase the loyalty of Ireland and to foster the sedative effect of the Land Act? Will not the Irish Catholic provinces be gravely irritated by such a spectacle, and perhaps induced to apologise for and support the seditious local Councils even where they would not otherwise have been at all disposed to' defend them ? We cannot conceive a. more unfortunate influence for the new Ireland than an irritant of this kind, produced by the interference of the central Government to suppress agencies which in England and Scotland could not be thus suppressed.
But all this supposes that the present Government remains in power. Suppose, what is quite possible, that the General Election which takes place immediately' after this Local Government Act is passed, instals a Glad- stonian Government in power. Does any one imagine that the exceptional Irish condition would be enforced with the same care and firmness ? Is it not the natural policy of the Gladstonians to ignore at least the germs and beginnings of popular agitation, and even though they be required by law to interfere with County Councils which lend themselves to oppressive practices, will they not be extremely reluctant to recognise any oppression of the sort, especially as they will feel that there could be no stronger argument for an Irish Legislature and Administration than anything like the prevalence of a general conviction that Ireland could not possibly be governed without these concessions ? It seems to us certain that if an Irish Local Government Act is imme- diately followed by a change of Government, the enforce- ment of the one condition which is supposed to insure us against the perils of that Act will almost certainly be evaded, while almost every County Council out of Ulster will become a centre of the most formidable resistance to British rule. We must say that to us this whole Local Government policy seems quite premature. Ireland wants a quiet interval in which the policy of the Land Act may have time to take full effect, before a new source of political agitation shall be opened to her. We heartily wish that Mr. Balfour had taken more completely to heart Lord Melbourne's favourite question : "Can't you leave it alone ?" Very likely an Irish Local Government Bill would have been a most useful and prudent measure three years hence. To pass it before the dissolution seems to us most perilous. But if Mr. Balfour on full considera- tion advises it, as the Opposition will certainly support that advice with all their force, such an Act will be passed ; and in that case we only hope that it may not undo all the good which Mr. Balfour's -hitherto wise and statesmanlike policy has done. It does not take very long to imbue the mind even of a large class with the "magic of property." But it is not an instantaneous process, and is seriously interfered with by a simultaneous political agitation. What Ireland needs, is a peasant-proprietary, and time to realise what property in land really means. We earnestly hope that Mr. Balfour is not making a great mistake in precipitating a new political agitation before the time requisite for this great change of national attitude can have been gained.
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