6

comprehensive spirit, and to develop a policy which will be likely to prove a thorough and an acceptable remedy, there is still another difficulty which must be faced. It is that of arrears. It would be of comparatively little use to say to a man, we will put you in the way of owning the land which you cultivate, on terms adopted with special reference to your own convenience and interest,' if the day or the week after he had entered upon the new arrangement he was liable to be proceeded against for old debts. Landlords in Ireland have always been easy with their tenants, and the custom of the country' is not to pay rent down to the day it is due, but to let it run back-in many cases, till it can never be overtaken. Arrears of six years' rent are common enough-two or three years may almost be regarded as the rule. It is quite certain that the majority of the tenants are not now in a position to settle these old claims. To deal with their future condition first would, therefore, be beginning at the wrong end. It is their past about which most of them are anxious. What, then, is to be done with these arrears? It appears to us that there is very little choice before us, considering the position in which Mr. Gladstone has placed landlords and tenants. The landlords must do as other persons are obliged to do who have to deal with defaulting debtors-they must accept a composition. The whole is better than twothirds, but two-thirds is better than nothing. If the State will pay the landlords, say, two-thirds of their arrears, onethird should be remitted altogether, and the tenantry would start afresh, without the millstone of debt round their necks, and with good hope and good prospects before them. The amount required for this purpose would not be so large as many people might be led to suppose, although of course it would be difficult to give anything approaching to an exact estimate of it. A tenth part of the cost of one of the most insignificant of England's little wars would more than suffice to remove this obstacle from the path. Substantial justice would be done to all the parties who have been concerned in the long and melancholy dispute over the land of Ireland. The tenant would be set free to gain his livelihood, and the landlords, who have, as one of their number has said, 'been too long placed between the nether millstone of the people, and the upper millstone of the Government-attacked by the Government to appease the people, and attacked by the people to annoy the Government,'* the landlords would receive at least an approach to fair-play,

* The Earl of Dunraven in the House of Lords, February 17th, 1882.

and

and cease to be made a stalking-horse for treasonable conspiracies in Ireland, and revolutionary legislation at Westminster.

6

That this plan, or any other which could be devised, would be certain to quell the demon of Irish discontent, we do not undertake to say. It needs Mr. Gladstone's sublime confidence in the wandering fires and mysterious lights of his own imagination, to talk of finality in connection with Ireland. In 1869, the Disestablishment Act was to save us. It is now seen that it has accomplished none of the good which was anticipated. In 1870, Mr. Gladstone prevailed upon Parliament to pass his first Land Act, and he promised that thenceforth we should see Ireland and England living on the most affectionate terms together, while 'peace, order, and a settled and cheerful industry would diffuse their blessings from year to year, and from day to day, over a smiling land. "* Now the smiling land' is stained with innocent blood, and the 'settled industry' of which we hear the most is the trade of assassination. In 1881,† Mr. Gladstone again came forward to prophesy in his own behalf. Undaunted by previous failures, he assured the House and the country that his second Land Act—and it is to be hoped his last-would prove to be another great emancipating and redeeming measure, necessary alike for the prosperity of Ireland, the fame of Parliament, and the strength and solidity of the United Kingdom.' After the melancholy experience of a few months, which was quite sufficient to prove that this measure also was doomed to be enrolled upon the long list of Mr. Gladstone's failures, he still spoke of it with pride and pleasure as the infant Hercules,' although to eyes less blinded by paternal affection it was painfully clear that Hercules had the rickets, and was doomed to be devoured by the monsters he was sent forth to slay. Every one of the 'redeeming measures' which Mr. Gladstone has introduced since 1869 has been a messenger of strife, not of peace. The consequences of the course which he has pursued will not pass away when he is cast from power; there never was an infallible panacea' for Irish discontent, and there is less reason than ever to hope for one now. But if a sovereign remedy cannot be found, we must use what seems likely at least to act as a palliative. Ireland needs a firm government, and a just government; and the Liberal party has afforded abundant proof that it is able to give neither the one nor the other. Great efforts' of eloquence, imposing

* Speech on proposing the Land Bill, February 15th, 1870.
+ House of Commons, 16th May.

speeches,

speeches, dazzling promises-these we have had from its leaders in lavish profusion; but the end is that our perplexities and dangers have all been immeasurably increased. The nation will presently require that the statesmen' who have brought it to this pass shall be deprived of the power of doing further mischief, and for that contingency we cannot be too soon or too thoroughly prepared.

If the Conservative party were summoned back to power, it could not sit down with folded hands, looking at Ireland and doing nothing. It would have to govern, and it could not govern by repressive measures alone. What the English people must see plainly now is, that the arrest of suspects' by the cart-load does no sort of good. A commission of judges would have more effect in restoring order and respect for law than all the arbitrary imprisonments in the world; but the present Ministry have, it seems, a great, though entirely theoretic, reverence for trial by Jury and the liberty of the subject. It is 'irregular' to try men without a jury, but it is still more irregular to keep them in prison without a trial. The Radicals now tell us that, as misjudged coercion has failed, all attempts at coercion shall be discontinued. They might as well argue that, as the laws against murder and robbery have not suppressed those crimes, we shall do well to abolish the laws. We say, on the contrary, that it is incumbent upon us to enforce the law more effectively than ever. The Conservative party would admit that its first duty must be to restore order in Ireland; and it would fulfil that duty without resorting to the impotent expedients of a nerveless despotism. It would not bring upon its head the remonstrances of foreign powers for its 'cruelty,' while rendering itself the laughing-stock of the people it was pretending to punish. Anything which was worth calling a government would feel that deep and indelible disgrace must cling to it, while murder and outrage stalked in the full glare of day throughout Ireland, and while the law was no more remembered except as a theme for ridicule. There can never again be peace in Ireland while Mr. Gladstone remains in office. His one remaining hope appears to be that he will be able to silence in Parliament the voice of opposition, and even of criticism beyond what he is pleased to consider reasonable limits—and his limits are of the narrowest description. But public opinion is not dead, and judgment must soon be pronounced upon him and his works. Few save himself can suppose that this judgment will be in his favour. His party have had but one plea for further toleration in office, and it is that none

but

but themselves have any definite policy to submit to the country
in relation to Ireland. This, with their other fictions, must now
be swept away. We could not promise to transform Ireland at
a moment's notice into a 'smiling land,' flowing with milk and
honey; but under Conservative government life and property
might be rendered once more secure, anarchy might be made to
give place to order, and crime could be made to retreat into its
lairs. We have indicated the outline of a plan by which some
measure of justice might be secured to all classes, to those who
have always been poor and to those who once were rich; it
is for responsible statesmen to supply the details, and it only
remains for us to submit it with confidence and hope to the
frank and thoughtful consideration of the public.

INDEX

TO THE

HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD VOLUME OF THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.