CLIFFORD LLOYD ON THE POLITICAL NECESSITIES IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 27, 30 October 1885, Page 19

CLIFFORD LLOYD ON THE POLITICAL NECESSITIES IN IRELAND.

Thb following is the Dublin Freeman's summarised rersion of the papercontribut«dby Mr. Cliffoid Lloyd, R.M, to the London Times - The time is rapidly approaching wben it will be Decessary to take into serious consideration the present political situation in Ireland • and to come to some decision in devising means whereby the peace and order to be secured in that country may give hope for a tranquillity more lasting than periodical Coercion Acts afford, and for a prosperity, which with the maintenance of tbe law, can only be secured by the co-operation and pood will of the people. The Irish of to-day are not the Irish of even five yearg ago, and any attempt at legislation or at government that does not realise this fact is certain to produce much disappointment. If remedial legislation has failed to reahSvKbe hopes entertained, the cause is likely to be found in the determination of tbe people to keep the country in an unsettled condition until some serious effort is made to satisfy their political aspirations. 1 hroughout the length and breadth of Ireland a great democratic wave of thought has passed over the people, and it has left results which are not only likely to be lasting, but which must be fully and immediately realised if any clear and just conception is to be arrived at concerning the solution of tbe important— l may say Tital— questions now ripening with reference to tbe future of the Irish people and the continued unity of the kingdom. If the hastiivcreated and rough-and-ready organisation of tbe Land League in its earlier days was powerful in its grasp upon the people, the present organisation of the National League is infinitely more so In every town and almost every village in Irel ,nd a branch exists. Experience has consolidated and familiarity with danger emboldened it Originally the Land League assumed jurisdiction only in matters' relating to the soil, but the National League of to-day puts no limit to its attributions. It censures the Viceroy one day and a village constable the next. It reviews the decisions of the highest courts dictates to the municipal bodies, practically elects every representative of the peiple, whether to the boards of guardians or to the Imperial Parliament, and its last display of assumed power was a direction to the Irish people as to how thpy were to co id net themselves on the occasion of the visit of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princesa of Wales to the country. When three or four millions of P 3ople are willing to submit themselves to th* irresponsible dominion of such a rule as this, placing themselves at the same time in open defiance to every constituted authority in the land— when, notwithstanding diminished local trade, absence of peace and lack of security taxation for extra police, blood moneys levied, and tbe score of funds to which they are cabled upon to subscribe, they continue with the secrecy of the ballot to elect as their Parliamentary representatives those who are pledged to continue an agitation which has now been rending the country for nearly five years, with the fall knowledge that the present conduct of affairs may very possibly end in a bloody revolutiou it is at least time, in my opinion, to consider calmly and fully whether there is any just ground for the bitter complaints raised as to the government of the country being throughout its machinery entirely out of harmony with the feelings and reasonable aspirations of a free people, and, if so, whether it is possible to introduce changes likely to lead to future uuity, concord, and prosperity. It is quite unnecessary to touch upon the political problems that would spring into existence with an Irish Republic. Though there may be in Ireland persons wild enough to dream of tbe possibility of an independent Ireland there are i<.w m England ;t any shade of political feeling who will be found prepand to enter m-o the consideration even of such a generally recognised impossibility. There is. however, another form of government Mig.jeste-1 as a panac a for the suff -rino-d of the Irish people, and this i 3i 3 known by the name of Home Rule. It has many advocates in botb England and Ireland, but the Home Kule movement has always suffeied frjm tb- great disadvantage of never having been defined with any attempt at precision. To all it, at least, conveys the idea of a Parliament sitting in Dublin. That is unquesiionablv tbe base of the proposi ion, aud an accepted starting point in the mind of every advocate of the Home Rule cause, however moderate or extreme may be h.b political opinions. Without a Parliament in Dublin there could be no Home Kule, and yet it is this very fact tbat renders H»me Rule an absolute impossibility . There may be Munster Home Rule or Counaught Home Rule, but there can never be Irish Home Rulew long as there is an Ulster peopled as at present The Northerners are ebsentialiy charactered by their unqualified loyalty to the Crown, unwavering resolution to Jink their destiny with Great Britain, by their self-reluace, energy, prosperity, and a deep-rooted intolerance o: the teacmng of the Roman Church. It is geneially a tmitted by tho>e conversa it with the feeling of the nonh tbat the Protestant artisans of Belfast and farmers of Down, Antrim Armagh and other loyal countnes would under no circumstances submit to be ruled from Dublin by a Home Rule Government and Parliament Home Rule would mea i civil war, and it is well that tuture legislators should understand this. But because an Irish Parliament in Uolleeegreeii it considered the dream of a few imaginative aud sanguine Irishmen is any reason established for allowing the fire of revolution to smoulder on from month to month and year to year, only to be blown into the blaze of lebellion by the first favourable gust of wind f A young generation is growing up bred in the very air of sedition and treason, which would not b« possible but for the want of foresight in governing, the dissensions of party, and the unfortunate habit of waiting for events in affairs connected with Ireland. It will be indeed strange if the rising generation of Irishmen in the middle and lower classes do not turn out to be rebels of the most approved type. The teaching is all one way, and it will be difficult to be aught else. It will be found that those who claim to speak with authority assign two great causes tor the discontent still prevalent in Ireland notwithstanding the immense concessions made to the people UDon the land question. The fiist is the exclusion of the people from any share in the management of their own affairs. The second is the xistence in Dublin of a ceatralised Government alleged to be oat of

touch with the Imperial Parliament, with the British Cabinet, and with the Irish people. I cannot too strongly put forward my matured opinion, formed after years of residence and of official life in both the north and the south, that a fierce and bloody contest would be the result of instituting a Parliament in Dublin. But there is a means of meeting practically the just demands of the Irish people, which would not only preserve the unity of the kingdom, but, when wounds had time to heal, would give it a strength and reality hitherto onknown by bringing peace and contentment, and therefore security and prosperity, to Ireland. I allude to the creation of elective county boards, with power to administer the local funds and all matters relating to the public works, the asylums, hospitals, roads, poor-law rates, etc. On this base there is room to build. There is here unlimited scope for the growth of politic life. Bhort of the administration of justice, the preservation of order, and the imposition of taxation, these being imperial attributes, every power of initiative and of general local control should be conferred upon such a body. At the present moment, whether in towo or country, the Irish of the south and west are hostile critics of proceedings in which they hare moch interest but play no part. Such a field as I have indicated would supply subjects for consideration and discussion among themselves ; it would divert the thoughts of the people out of a hitherto endless vein of conspiracy and sedition, and it would make the Irish at least feel that they were the component part of a great political system, and a living useful portion of a free people. These institutions would create political life and provide a field for its rapid expansion. I see no reason why delegates from those county assemblies interested should not meet in committee, as required, todiscuss questions relating to proposed railways, harbours, means of navigation, and other matters in which more than one county might be interested. In considering how to invigorate and popularise the government of Ireland let us beware of accepting, as a foundation on which to work, the theories or the fancies of enthusiasts. Above all, let us be practical. Let us not make an exception as regards Ireland to the principles upon which the United Kingdom in general ie governed. These consist in the administration of the country at large by the great departments of State, with one Imperial National Parliament, to which all are responsible and where laws are made, modified, and repealed according to the requirements of the community. Once we go ootside these broad lines we know not whither it may be led. County government already exibts, and what v proposed is only to make it representative. PuttiDg aside all questions of a per onal nature, let us considei whether maintaining the office of Lord Lieutenant in Ireland provides a form of executive suitable to the people and to the day in which we live. I confess to the opinion that it does not. The office of Lord Lieutenant in its Sovereign representation is an indication of personal power no longer existing, while as suggesting the administration in Ireland it is the emblem of a centralised bureaucratic system condemned by experience in every country, even under the most Imperial of Governments. An administration into the workings of which the public eye cannot penetrate, which owing to surrounding circumstances is, to a great extent, free from Parliamentary control, and that rarely feels the invigorating effect of the introduction of new blood, has a natural tendency to deteriorate into a state of centralised stagnation. Stagnation in any form and in any country is always painful to witness, but to the intelligent observer stagnation, in whatever forte, in Ireland presents an aspect peculiarly unhealthy, distressing to witness, and seemingly hopeless. It seems to me, however, that then: is no room in Ireland for a Viceroy under a constitutional Government. In Canada there is a Viceroy representing the Sovereign ns a part of the local constitution. In India there is a Viceroy lepresenting the Sovereign ruling the Empire. The Sovereign at the present day does not rule Ireland personally, and there is no locU constitution. In India there is a Viceroy representing the local constitution. The position is an anomaly. The Sovereign is not supposed to display any leaning to this or to thit party in the state, but in Ireland tbe representative of the Crown is not only the chosen representative of the political party in power, but is also, as a rule, one of ita moat distinguished supporters in the Hoube of Lords.

The people of Ireland say that they detested the late Government, but are not disloyal to the Crown. It is the privilege of a loyal people to show their dissatisfaction with a Government or with any particular Minister, bat in Ireland if this is duue the people are sail to be disloyal and to be insulting the Sovereign. The Viceroyalty in Ireland seems also to perpetuate the idea of a separate kingdom, inferior to that over wbicu the Sovereign rules in person. Now Ireland is part of one kingdom, and it wuuld be as unsound in principle to have a Viceroy of Euglaud as a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Is it desirable to perpetuate aa idea which since tbe Union has been a fiction, which confounds the Sovereign with politics, and which strains the Constitution of the country to an extent alarming to every sober-minded person ?

Pießuming that such a form of county government as I have described should come into operatiou and that the office ot Lord Lieutenaut should be abolished, the question arises, who is to do the work now performed by the Viceroy and in what manner is the Imperial Government generally to be carried on? The answer to this is that my scheme dots not seek to destroy, but to construct. The Sovereign it is hoped, would come in person, or by a Royal representative, to frequently perform these social duties which are so conducive to the well-being of the people, but it would be necessary to vest in a Secretary of State those executive functions now pertaining to the Lord Lieutenant.

It will, in my opinion, be a mistake to have a Secretary of f State, especially for Ireland, for the affairs of which I believe at present the Home Secretary ia constitutionally responsible. If there are no cogent reasons foi hia becoming so in fact as well as in theory, there are forcible arguments in favour of my suggestion. In the first place all tbat goes to blend the government of the two countries is good as strengthening the unity of the kingdom, while the tendency of having a distinct Secretary of State for Ireland would be to per-

petuate the notion of divided interesto. Again, the Home Secretary is one of the most important members of the British Cabinet, and I feel satisfied that if he were responsible for the good government and well-being of Ireland, more ready and timely attention would be paid to its affairs by the Cabinet, as a whole, than has in practice hitherto been the case, or than they could command under other dispositions. It is difficult to conceive a more popular system of Government than this would be. In counties local affairs of every description would be managed by elected representatives of the people ; while in Imperial matters pertaining to the great State departments one hundred representatives of the people, knowing their minds, should be able to exercise sufficient power and influence to insure the redress of every grievance and the conduct of the general administration being in accordance with their own desires.

There is no reason why every fnnction of Royalty should not be performed in Ireland, as in England, by one of the Royal family. • The Irish aie'by nature monarchical. Where the English are ' respectful they are enthusiastic. They are imaginative and impulsive, and must have something on which to rent their feelings of enthusiasm. In all countries pomp and splendour, grace and refinement, munificence and benevolence, dignity, mercy, and power are idealistic of a Sovereign, and exercise a special influence over the minds of the masses. Had the generous and natural feelings of a peculiarly susceptible people, such as the Irish, been appealed to more, even in the face of shortsighted party government, tha nation might not be to-day abject at the feet o£ " an uncrowned kin- "

Clifford Lloyd.

The.following letter has been addressed to the public Press :— The Castle, Dublin, 24th August. Sib, — I am directed by the Lord Lieutenant to state that the article signed by Mr. Clifford Lloyd on " Political Necessities in Ireland," whicb appeared in the Times of the 2Ut instant, was published without the consent or knowledge of the Irish Government, who had received no communication from Mr. Lloyd on the subject. His Excellency, whilst always ready to receive from any officer of administrative experience any suggestions tbat he may deem it desirable to offer, considers it as inconvenient to the public service as it is unusual that a communication raising questions of fundamental and constitutional importance should, without his sanction or concurrence, be mooted by one who holds a permanent office under the Government.

If such a coarse were allowed to pas 9 unnoticed, other officers in the public service might claim to express other and extreme views involving the most delicate questions of policy and administration, whilst the head of the Government would be obviously precluded from taking part in the unseemly controversy. — I remain, sir, your obedient servant, R

.. G. C. Hamilton."