IRISH "CATTLE-DRIVING."

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1908, Page 6

IRISH " CATTLE-DRIVING."

In a recent interview with a. special correspondent of the Morning Post Mr. T. M. Hcaly, M.P., described! Great Britain's Irish administration as "a Government the like of which could not bo found out of a pantomime controlling tho country with 55 Chief Secretaries in 107 years ; no stability, no constancy, no persistence of administration, or if there lie any so-calkd twenty years of resolutegovernment, it is resolution in thft wrong direction, the resolution of the handcuffs j and the gibbet." For Mr. Birrell it may at least bo said that none of his fiftyfour predecessors has been endowed in richer measure with the impertuibable good-humour which is one of the most valuable assets of a politician, especially in Ireland, and that the resolution for which the trying exrciieuces of the past six months have provided ample oppor- . tunity has not bean in tho direction condemned by tho representatives of the Irish people. The practice of cattle"driving," which has attained snch large proportions during the period mentioned, has certainly 1 - provided a very xlifh'cult problem for the Chief Secretary, and for other persons besides. It is puzzling the Irish leaders no less than Ms. I Birrell. "At the present moment," wroto tho Westminster Gazette a few days before Christmas, "there is scarcely a responsible man in Ireland who supports Mr. Ginnell's agitation, •and there aie a great many responsible men who have, openly disowned it." The Roman Catholic hierarchy has denounced cattle-"driying" as sinful ; Mr. Redmond, though his long-expected condemnation of the practice seems to be never coming, has not officially approved it ; and 1 Messrs. W. O'Brien and T. M. Healy, M.P.'s, have bitterly denounced' it. On the- platform and in tho press, Mr. O'Brien has repeatedly ridiculed the, practice as "foolery," and Mr. Healy, in the interview above mentioned, declares that "not only ia it useless, but T am not satisfied that, apart from tho morality of the case, it is not also ' injurious to the material interests of tho country." [n his opinion those who are engaged in it are "simply a number of young gentlemen impatient of results." irresponsible persons who must not be mistaken for representative. Tho estrangement of both Mr. O'Brien a«S_ Mr. Uoaly from the Nationalist organisation must of course be- allowed for in weighing what they say, but the bias cannot be a seriously disturbing element hero, for Mr. Healy adds to his denunciation of the practice taat "if the foolish cackle of Liberal newspapers were the result in coercion being forced upon Ireland, it would place every Nationalist who ia worth his snlt on the &ide of the cattle-drivers." This .8 the point of view which has induced Mr. Birr'ellV refusal to take the 'obvious short cut that would put the cattledrivers in gaol, but would at the same time make thsnt martyrs in the national cause. It is for this reason that tha Government, in the words of Mr. W. H. Long, ha 3 "sat with folded hands when it possessed an effective, instrument in the shape of the Crimes Act." The idea that Air. Birrell stands alone in the matter, or that the Cabinet is suffering from any diversion of opinion, is eonclusi\e!y disproved by the npeechss of two of his colleagues from which we cited yesterday. Mr! Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, who are two of the Vice-Prtsidents of Lord Rosebery's Liberal Le-ague, and may b© said to represent the nearest approach to a Whig clement in the Cabinet, have both declared that Mr Birrell's policy of relying upon the ordinary law is "a policy deliberate^ adopted, and approved by the Cabinet — and a policy for which they were co-operatively responsible." Cattle-driving is not to be made a' pretext for coercion, but it will have to be stopped somehow if the Irish cause is to make satisfactory progress.