The Framework of Home Rule | Page 4

British connection above the
need for self-help and self-reliance. The real paradox is that any
Irishmen, Unionist or Nationalist, should tolerate advisers who,
however sincere and patriotic, avowedly regard Ireland as the parasite
of Great Britain; who appeal to the lower nature of her people; to the
fears of one section and the cupidity of both; advising Unionists to rely
on British power and all Irishmen on British alms. A day will come
when the humiliation will be seen in its true light. Even now, I do
venture to appeal to that small but powerful group of moderate Irish
Unionists who, so far from fearing revenge or soliciting charity, spend
their whole lives in the noble aim of uniting Irishmen of all creeds on a
basis of common endeavour for their own economic and spiritual
salvation; who find their work checked in a thousand ways by the
perpetual maintenance of a seemingly barren and sentimental agitation;
who distrust both the parties to this agitation; but who are reluctant to
accept the view that, without the satisfaction of the national claim, and
without the national responsibility thereby conferred, their own aims
can never be fully attained. I should be happy indeed if I could do even
a little towards persuading some of these men that they mistake cause
and effect; misinterpret what they resent; misjudge where they distrust,
and in standing aloof from the battle for legislative autonomy,
unconsciously concede a point--disinterested, constructive optimists as
they are--to the interested and destructive pessimism which, from
Clare's savage insults to Mr. Walter Long's contemptuous patronage,
has always lain at the root of British policy towards Ireland.
In the meantime, for those who like or dislike it, Home Rule is
imminent. We are face to face no longer with a highly speculative, but
with a vividly practical problem, raising legislative and administrative
questions of enormous practical importance, and next year we shall be
dealing with this problem in an atmosphere of genuine reality totally
unlike that of 1886, when Home Rule was a startling novelty to the
British electorate, or of 1893, when the shadow of impending defeat
clouded debate and weakened counsel. It would be pleasant to think
that the time which has elapsed, besides greatly mitigating anti-Irish

prejudice, had been used for scientific study and dispassionate
discussion of the problem of Home Rule. Unfortunately, after eighteen
years the problem remains almost exactly where it was. There are no
detailed proposals of an authoritative character in existence. No
concrete scheme was submitted to the country in the recent elections.
None is before the country now. The reason, of course, is that the Irish
question is still an acute party question, not merely in Ireland, but in
Great Britain. Party passion invariably discourages patient constructive
thought, and all legislation associated with it suffers in consequence.
Tactical considerations, sometimes altogether irrelevant to the special
issue, have to be considered. In the case of Home Rule, when the
balance of parties is positively determined by the Irish vote, the
difficulty reaches its climax. It is idle to blame individuals. We should
blame the Union. So long as one island democracy claims to determine
the destinies of another island democracy, of whose special needs and
circumstances it is admittedly ignorant, so long will both islands suffer.
This ignorance is not disputed. No Irish Unionist claims that Great
Britain should govern Ireland on the ground that the British electorate,
or even British statesmen, understand Irish questions. On the contrary,
in Ireland, at any rate, their ignorance is a matter for satirical comment
with all parties. What he complains of is, that the British electorate is
beginning to carry its ignorance to the point of believing that the Irish
electorate is competent to decide Irish questions, and in educating the
British electorate he has hitherto devoted himself exclusively to the
eradication of this error. The financial results of the Union are such that
he is now being cajoled into adding, "It is your money, not your
wisdom, that we want." Once more, an odd state of affairs, and some
day we shall all marvel in retrospect that the Union was so long
sustained by a separatist argument, reinforced in latter days by such an
inconsistent and unconscionable claim.
In the meantime, if only the present situation can be turned to
advantage, this crowning paradox is the most hopeful element in the
whole of a tangled question. It is not only that the British elector is
likely to revolt at once against the slur upon his intelligence and the
drain upon his purse, but that Irish Unionism, once convinced of the
tenacity and sincerity of that revolt, is likely to undergo a dramatic and
beneficent transformation. If they are to have Home Rule, Irish

Unionists--even those who now most heartily detest it--will