THE CRIMES BILL AND ANTICOERCION.

Evening Star, Issue 7226, 31 May 1887, Page 2

THE CRIMES BILL AND ANTICOERCION.

[' AkGUS'S* I.ONIJON CORBKSI'ONDENUK.] The debate on the second reading of the Crimes Bill has gone on for three nights Without revealing any new point of importance. The Home Secretary (Mr H, Matthews), Sir H. Holland, and Mr Ritchie, to say nothing of lesser lights, have spoken for the Government; Mr Childers, Mr Stansfield, Sir Lyon Playfair, and Mr \Vhitbread for the Opposition. The greater men are.all of them holding their fire. The Home Secretary has taken the trouble to do himself justice, and his latest performance in the House goes somewhat to establish the claim which was made for him by Lord R. Churchill, who, when elected Lsader of the House by his party, was greatly in need of a " backer." Mr Matthews can be vigorous--as well as fluent, and he made a really excellent speech, putting the Government case in a much better light than that in which it had been left. He repudiated the suggestion that the Bill was aimed at combination by the tenants, and declared, as a lawyer, that associating for the reduction of rent would not be touched so long as the tenants did not have recourse to violent or unlawful means to influence the landlords. The legal authority of the Home Secretary is considerable, and we may, therefore, take it that the law has been correctly stated by certain Gladstgnians, who have asserted in speech and in writing of late that combination against rent is perfectly legitimate, in spite of the dictum of the Irish Judges. The point is one of considerable importance in relation to the future, since the plan of campaign may possibly be made to square by it. The agitation against " coercion " goes on in the country, but in a rather listless sort of way. The Gladstonians would deny this, and point with pride to the great meeting in Hyde Park. The demonstration was astutely arranged for tho Easter bank holiday, and as the day was fine, had every possible advantage. Mr Gladstone had himself blown the trumpet to battle, for in a letter addressed to a North Shields newspaper, and promptly published by the ' Pall Mall Gazette,' he spoke of the Hyde Park meeting, saying that if ever there was a time for the English working man to bethink it was now. The rejection of the Coercion Bill, he declared, was more needed by England than by Ireland, and he trusted the forthcoming demonstration would ring the death-knell of "the worst, most insulting, most causeless Coercion Bill ever submitted to Parliament. The right hon. gentleman did not actually take the field in person, but some of his most trusted friends were among the speakers, and Mrs Gladstone, with Lady Frederick Cavendish, gave public benediction to the demonstrators, as they passed in procession, from a window in Piccadilly. Yet if the truth must be told, this appeal to the power of the mob against the elected Parliament wholly miscarried. Careful ] observers declare that those who were in the park, and were really of the demonstration, did not exceed 20,000, being very far short of the numbers of the great Reform demonstration of 1884. Of course there were many —very many —more people in the park on Easter Monday, but these cannot fairly be reokoned, since they were, as regards the majority, women. and children, who have no interest whatever in the Crimes Bill. On the other hand, it may be freely admitted that, taking the gathering as the work of the caucus, it was well arranged enough, and was an excellent bit of machine-made " opinion." The Gladstonians found themselves in strange company. The Parnellites—Sexton and T. P. O'Connor—were there as a matter of course, but the Socialists also had the platform, and here Mr M. Davitt, Mr John Burns, and Mr Williams delivered themselves. A few hours before—at a meeting held in Battersea Park on Saturday—Mr John Burns was interrupted with a cry of ''Three acres and a cow," whereupon he remarked that " Chamberlain would not get the cow, but the bull, and the amount of ground necessary for him to own would be about 6ft by 2ft." He added that he was sorry that the recent attempt against the Czar had failed, and then asked his auditors, who might deprecate force and extreme measures: If some of them did not like the idea of Joseph Chamberlain following the Czar and Lord Salisbury to Heaven by means of a chemical parcels post." This language may, andought, to bring Mr Burns into trouble. And side by side with it I have to mention the fact that his " comrade," Williams, had just come from the Police Court to the meeting. On Sunday he presided at the Socialist gathering in the park, and subsequently he went out into the streets at the head of his " chums "to make a demonstration. A riot seemed imminent, and the police took Williams into custody. The next morning, the charge, having been partly heard, was adjourned, and Williams was liberated on bail. He has to come up next week. The Gladstonians, of course, repudiate any responsibility for the doings of the Socialists, though they accept the help of these gentry. Mr Labouchere cannot, however, be repudiated, and he has gone to the length of suggesting that at all costs it must lie demonstrated that Ireland cannot be ruled by coercion. When the' National League is suppressed, Mr Labouchere says,'' secret societies must replace, it, : and war must be met by war. If the Government use the army of despotism to crußh out liberty, the people must reply by the use of those means which oppressed nationalities have ever had at their command," and finally, "the blood and iron policy of oppression has never yet been successfully resisted with rosewater." This is going fairly far, even'for a Home Rule Radical, of the Northampton pattern. And Mr Herbert Gladstone, just returned from India, rushes into the fray at Leeds to declare that if the Irish Executive attempt to tamper with the liberties and rights of the Irish people they would find it would not'be sufficient to lock up the Irish members, for there would be plenty of English and Irish members ready to take their plaees in Ireland, and to work for JiomeKule.

Being thus dragged into an agitation, the Unionist patty ha"ve continued the counter movement. At Birmingham Lord R. Churchill again demonstrated his determination to stand by the Government. He declared that Mr Gladstone was seeking to coerce the country into a reversal of the position solemnly arrived at less than nine months ago;' that Lord Salisbury was but carrying out the policy which he announced to 'Parliament in August last; that Mr. Gladstone,' who never intervened' to. protect his own Speaker from insult, was .further attempting, by Parliamentary p%truction and extra-Parliamentary agitation, to bring the House of Commons into disrepute, and to paralyse and put an end to it; and that a more perfect piature of a political incendiary the mind could not possibly conceive. It is quite possible that Lord R. Churchill will be reminded, as he was by Sir Lyon Playfajr,' of certoin other words of his. in a very different key, but we must take the noble lord as he is, and for the moment he is on the right tack. The Liberal' Unionists are also very active. Mr Chamberlain, has begun his Scotch tour at Ayr, where he spoke to his friends of the Radical Union. He is accompanied by Mr Jesse Collihgs and Mr Arthur Chamberlain, and, so far, it' must be said Hihat the tour promises welL In the more important of his deliverances at Ayr, Mr Chamberlain made j'effective use of 'The Times" articles on Parnellism and crime to show the'' danger of making over affairs in Ireland to the present Parliamentary majority in the island, as well as to show the necessity for the Government Crimes Bill. Mr Chamberlain, indeed, gave a moat thorough-going and unflinching support to the Government Bill. All he stipn- j lated-for was that there should:, be accompanying remedial measures, and these he declared were 'forthcoming, as he desired. More than once the right hon. gentleman touched upon the difficulty of himself arid his friends, and of the persecutions which they suffered. Mr Parnell, he said, had actually'predicted as a result of the Coercion Bill a return of the dynamite and Assassination war, whilst the Gladstonian' leaders, knowing what it might mean to some of thefr sia friends, sat quietly and placidly by. Earlier in his speech Mr Chamberlain, making reference to a certain Irish assassination, ■. was, interrupted , hy ■ <* cry of " Watch yourself," and indignantly made this a text for some remarks on the debasement of f politics since Mr Glad-, stone had come' to terms with the Irish members./ But in winding up his observations he let it be seen that, come what might, he meant to adhere to his course, v He declined to aliowi the' Irish question to prevent him from obtaining a hearing for. other grievances,'affd'he ex pressed the hope that the country ,wquld insist a, reunion pf ,the .Liberal 1 party should be 'effected"' uponreasonable proposals.-* Sir Williatti HarCourt recently toljd a .public meeting .that 1 the Round] %ble Confereßoe-'had dwolosed !the iaotVfchaw tb>

differences between them were secondary and few. For himself, he believed they were fundamental; but if Sir William Harcourt thought otherwise, why did he not, for Mr Gladstone, make some concession, aud so secure the reunion of the party. Mr Chamberlain opined that there was a. power behind'the throne, but he believed that Gladstonian Liberalism would disappear like a bad dream, and that they would once more be a united party of progress. _ It must be said for Mr Chamberlain that he is rather sanguine on this point. His colleague, Sir George Trevelyan, has again gone over to the enemy. In a letter to a correspondent he has stated his views on the Crimes Bill, and has delivered a serious attack on the measure. In administering the Act of 1882, Lord Spencer and himself drew a deep and clear line between politics and crime. While they sought to punish Moonlighters, murderers, and criminals, they—he says—left politicians alone. But the Government Bill would place it in the power of an Administration to treat Irish politicians as common criminals, and it was inconceivable to him how Liberal members could vote for such a measure. Sir George makes much complaint of the oonduot of the Irish Attorney-General and of Colonel King-Harnian during the time he was at Dublin Castle, and declares that thoy are not to be trusted to put the powers of the Bill into execution. For a similar though earlier letter, the Aberdeen Unionists have cancelled*an invitation which they had sent to Sir George asking him to address them. And by way of balancing the argument, may bp mentioned a letter written by Lord Hartington to a Unionist meeting held at Peebles. The Marquis was quit 9of opinion that some answer should be given to the agitation promoted by the Home Rulers —it was greatly to be regretted that the Government should be again impelled to resort to these measures; but it was his firm conviction that the issue whioh had compelled this policy had not been spontaneous, and was not in the main caused by unredressed grievances. It was the result of a determination by some Irish leaders to prove that government by the united Parliament was impossible, and the attempt ought to be resisted by Unionists, whether Liberal or Conservative. Mr Caine, M.P., speaking at this meeting, said the efforts to bring the Liberal party together had been fruitless, " because Mr Gladstone stubbornly adhered to his Home Rule policy." The Unionists, were, however, strong enough, and "would form a camp of their own." Mr Michael Davitt lias undertaken to speak in the Highlands, and generally to make matters as uncomfortable for Mr Chamberlain as they can be made. Mr Childers and other Gladstonians will give their attention to the Scottish capital, and make reply. Scotland supplies a very strong contingent of the Unionist party, and hence the importance of the local controversy. The Convention ot the Royal Boroughs of Scotland, consisting ot the provosts aud other municipal dignitaries, have by a two-thirds majority rejected a proposal to make a protest against the Crimes Bill. Iu another matter of Irish concern the Government have made a distinct blunder. The appointment of Colonel King-Harman as Under-Secretary at the Irish Office, with a seat in Parliament, has given much dissatisfaction. Colonel King-Harman was a Nationalist, and the secretary of the organisa-. tion founded to push Mr Isaac Butt's Home Rule scheme. As a young man he was somewhat of a rowdy, and the • Pall Mall Gazette' has found much comfort in publishing the circumstances of his imprisonment in 1861 for certain indiscreet doings at Cremorne. Finally, as an Irish landlord, he has recently had to submit to some heavy reductions of rent made by the Land Court at the suit of his tenants. All this gives cause to the enemy to blaspheme, and both the 'Standard' and the ' St. James's Gazette' naturally ask why the Government should needlessly have incurred the reproach. There was no need to appoint a Parliamentary secretary to the Irish office at the present moment, since Mr Balfour has the help of two law officers ; and even admitting the need, there were men whose record would have stood examination much better than that of Colonel King-Harman. The sole recommendation of the right hon. gentleman seems to be that he has some experience of Irish lqoal affairs, and that he has " friends." There is reason for thinking that these latter have played the Govern ment a scurvy turn, which will produce trouble. Meantime the Roman Catholic prelacy in Ireland are doing their utmost to back up the opposition to the Crimes Bill. Archbishop Croke has induced his clergy to sign a series of condemnatory resolutions, and the example haa been followed elsewhere. The 'Tablet' has made reply to the attack of Archbishop Walsh, but it has to admit that the ' Moniteur de Rome' would not publish anything offensive to the Pope, and the ' Moniteur' openly supports the Plan of Campaign. This would seem to establish the contention o{ Archbishop Walsh that he has the approval of the Holy Father in giving help to the Nationalist cause. At the weekly meeting of the National League, on Wednesday, Mr Healy declared that arrangements were in progress to defeat the Crimes Bill, and to carry on the work of the organisation as at present. It is said that 'the head-quarters of the League will be removed to London, and that whilst the Irish leaders will, most of them, keep out of Ireland, the rank and file will have the assistance of their English Radical friends—as promised by Mr Herbert Gladstone—to keep the game going beyond the Channel. Mr Justin M'Carthy has, at claimed 'Mr Gladstone, t|ie elder, as a convinced Home Ruler of eight years' standing, quite regardless of the Crimes Act of 18S1 and 1882, and the famous declaration about the resources of civilisation, etc. At "Atley the Board of Guardians have elected as chairman the farmer Dunne, recently evicted from his holding on Lord Lansdowne's Queen's Rillside, another evicted tenant, was appointed vicechairman. After all this, it is pleasant, to add that some justice has at length been done to the Curtin family. Who have never ceased to suffer a savage persecution since their father —a member of the National LeagueT—was foully murdered. The Government have made them a grant of L2OO out of the public funds.