CENTRALISM IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 266, 7 June 1878, Page 21

CENTRALISM IN ENGLAND.

At last, «if tcr years of incessant agitation, and an arduous struggle on the part of determined far-seeing men, a light has broken in upon the minds of British politicians, the startling brilliancy of which has laid bare the skeletons in English national life created by an incompetent and helpless, because overworked central administration. The fallacy that 654 men collected witlvin the British Isles can be expected to legislate not only for the wants of the whole British Empire, upon all the intricacies of its foreign policy, as well as the pressing domestic affairs upon which depend the contentment, happiness, and prosperity of the English and Irish people, is now exploded in the very heart of the Legislature. The British Parliament has laboriously wrestled for years with many huge evils in the internal life of the kingdom, combatted mountains of prejudice in overthrowing customs and institutions which preyed upon the vitals of the hard working masses, made them drag out a.few years of miserable existence in abject serfdom, and then consigned them cowed and broken-hearted, ere half the span of life had fled, to a pauper's coffin and unknown grave. ! The working classes had the thrall of slavery at length removed and were impressed with the truth that they were thinking beings, fashioned for freedom by an Omnipotent hand and with certain sacred and inextinguishable rights. Measures of reform of every kind were passed within the last fifty years, and questions of stupendous magnitude followed one another in an appalling rapidity that made even Mr, Gladstone wish that we possessed a little more of the Conservative spirit of our ancestors, for the purpose of getting breathing time, and nn opportunity to lead the mind to cool reflection. But it now appears that many of those measures through inattention to details, and inability on the part of the House of Commons to attend to the working of the machinery which was to give them effect, have proved almost absolutely fruitless, and some of the agricultural districts in England remain to-day in. their primitive state of filth, ignorance, and poverty. It is needless to remark that Ireland was considered, I might say until yesterday, an unruly and unproscressive dependency upon which the valuable time of Imperial legislators could not be wasted, and that the people were kept under a galling yoke to satisfy the rapacity of an alien Church and gratify the despotic vanity of a heartless and tyrannical class. All those evils were indubitably owing to the powcriessness of the Central Government to master the multitude of subjects essential to the local life of the individual communities composing the Empire. Education, commerce, manufactures, charity, post-office, law and justice, custom, fisheries, the franchise, representation, railways, army, nary, foreign policy, the necpssities of the Indian possessions, and the colonies, schemes of annexation, and so on ad hijinitam, are even now mixed up in indescribable confusion with the petty local necessities of towns, "boroughs, and counties, and the innumerable requirements of Ireland prostrated through 80 years of inattention and niisgovemnicnt. And. yet, some singular fatality still obscures the vision of our leading statesmen and this monstrous and anomalous state of things is permitted to.continue undisturbed and almost unquestioned. On February U last, Mr. Sclater Booth introduced into the House of Commons a Bill providing a system of County Government for England by the creation of administrative County Boards. As far as I can gather from, the Parliamentary summary of the Time*, the Boards will not be elective or at least will not be elected by the ratepayers. This alone is sufficient to show that while recognising the necessities of the case, the Conservative Government hesitates to advance fearlessly on the track of Reform. Merc temporising and patching is more in harmony with their traditional policy. But the very fact tbat a measure admitting the importance of the Central Legislature to control the losal affairs of every part of the kingdom, has been brought forward, gives us hope at least that tkc progressive tendency of the age is felt even within the high walls of chill Conservatism, and that the truth will soon be rpcognised that to justly govern the tbree countries there is no alternative between decentralisation and continuous sittings of the House of Commons, The 1 j men says—" Front different quarters we have been working up to provincial Boards— that is, centres of power and management at a proper point between the centre and the locality." But provincial " Boards " endowed merely with adtninistravo functions are quite inadequate to "bridge over the vast interval" which the Tune* admits exists between " the sublime of national councils and the ridiculous of parochial politics." The Imperial Parliament is choked with legislative work and administrative bodies, however constituted, cannot give it the relief which it is generally admitted is necessary for the healthy perform ancc of the duties at present thrown upon it. is a physical impossibility for our statesmen to give attention to the astounding was,s of questions constantly thrust under their notice, questions apparently insignificant and certainly not of national interest, but of vital importance, to the particular localities from which they emanate. Mr. Gladstone, during his lecent visit to Ireland, in apologising for never having visited during a long series of years that country to which he had devoted so much of the labour of his matchless intellect, gave a summarised account of his daily life; in -which he stated that he scarcely had a day to attend to his private affairs, and was almost succumbing to the overwhelming/weight of ibc duties imposed upon him by his position even as an unofficial member, which he then was, fwid still remains. The consequence of all this is as Mr. J. G. MacCarthy fivers in his " Plea for Home Government." " not only total neglect of some of the most urgent social and political questions— questions of life and death to individuals, and to the Empire itself— but in the hasty, confused and irregular treatment of such as arc dealt with." Hoeing this then so clearly, how ludicrous it seems to attempt a reform by the creation of miserable irresponsible nominee '• Boards," why not face the difficulty boldly and straightforwardly, argue the whole whole question stated upon a broad and obvious issue, and put an ©id for ever to the humiliating spectacle of a Parliament rushing through its forms with disgusting precipitancy iiuniberlcss laws which it does not discuss and cannot understand, and yhich become as Mr. JUaguiru says, " a puswle to lawyers and an evil to the community."

Sooner or later the irresistible force of circumstances will compel a division of the legislative labour now bewildering the Imperial Legislature by its amount and intensity. Irish affairs cannot be satisfactorily controlled by a body of gentlemen, however learned and estimable, who confessedly do not understand them, and Scotland will scarcely permit much longer her measures to foe canvassed by an assembly totally unfamiliar with their scipe, necessity, or bearing. Federalism is naturally adapted for the government of the United Kingdom. Two countries geographically divided, inhabited by people of different races, yet possessing now a common language and an almost identical similarity of external interests, with different feelings and of different religious faith, and peculiar national idiosyncrasies ; this is the picture of tho British Islands. And from a study of the greatest thinkers upon theoretical government, the most obdurate lover of the " dry bonss of the past " must be convinced that the Federal system is peculiarly applicable to their state. Look how admirably this system has worked in Aus-tria-Hungary, Mr. MacCarthy says—" For many years Austria had been striving to convert the several states of the Empire into one centralised community, and in particular, to make the Hungarian institutions give way to German rule. This effort has been made with the utmost force, persistence and perseverance, by Kaiser after Kaiser, by statesmen after statesmen, generation after generation. It resulted in nothing but local disaffection, and Imperial weakness. After the stern lesson learned at Sadowa it was completely given up. The Reichstag or National Hungarian Parliament was restored and given supremo control of all the domestic affairs oE Hungary. Imperial affairs were confided to an Imperial Assembly in which Hungary is duly represented. Every observer testifies that the change has boon most benefical." " Before 1567," says a writer in the Quarterly Review, "Hungary was a discontented province kept in order by German troops ; it is now the most contented and patriotic port of the Empire." Mr. Laing, in his " ITotcs of a Traveller," says, "As civilisation, peace, and industry acquire an influence in the affairs of mankind • , . . the superiority of this system will probably be acknowledged by all civilized populations. Federalism involves a principle more akin to natural, free, and beneficial legislation." I could go on and quote a host of authorities, and most notably the late Mr, John Stuart Mill, to show that the present system of Government in Great Britain is repugnant to the teachings of political philosophy and the dictates of common reason. But the limits of this Article will not permit it. I think, however, sufficient has been said if not to convince any person of the soundness and applicability to England and Ireland of Federal Government, at least to make him examine the grounds upon which the present system is maintained, and I am fully confident that the result will be a triumphant vindication of the views sketched above, and Avhich I hold to be essential for the conciliation of Ireland, the freedom and happiness of the British people, and the justcr government of the whole empire. Auckland, May 20, 1878. "W. J. N.