Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

and home influences were powerful enough to keep the rising generation in the same path. Gradually, as I have remarked before, we came to the better and truer appreciation of our inheritance from the former days; and when, in October 1890, the Imperial Rescript was issued, we felt that the whole question was settled, and thenceforth there was a firm basis for our moral teaching. It was not anything new; it was a clear enunciation, as the Rescript says, "of the teaching bequeathed by our Imperial ancestors, to be observed alike by their descendants and the subjects, infallible for all ages and true in all places.'

D. KIKUCHI.

HOW LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS WORKED IN IRELAND

THE admission of Mr. Balfour that the Irish Councils Bill is incapable, by any legitimate process of development, of being turned into the irreducible minimum demanded by the Nationalists was received by the Liberal party with almost hysterical expressions of relief. The rank and file in the House of Commons, writhing under such a castigation as Mr. Balfour alone can give-and oppressed by the nightmare of having to defend the Government proposals in the country-gratefully welcomed this definition of the measure as a text for their autumn meetings. The Radical Press revelled next day in an apparent admission that the Bill involves no direct jeopardy to the Act of Union. Perhaps, from an electioneering point of view, the phrase was a mistake. The leader of the Opposition forgets the unscrupulous ingenuity of those who compile the elective literature of the Liberal party-and we shall doubtless see that the same hands who were responsible for the famous Chinese slavery posters will find scope for their particular genius in separating, for purposes of quotation, the phrase in question from the context in the speech. To those, however, who are concerned with statecraft rather than election leaflets it must be apparent that Mr. Balfour's line of attack was the wise one. The Bill is not Home Rule. However great may be the objections to the scheme from a constitutional point of view-however much we may be opposed to a complete violation of the fundamental principle of the Constitution that the British Parliament is to have control of the spending of moneys voted by the British taxpayerthe Bill as sketched out by Mr. Birrell cannot be said to affect the legislative supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. The main interest of the measure-apart from the constitutional principle to which reference has been made and the issues raised by the relative positions of the Chief Secretary and the Lord Lieutenant-must centre not in the Imperial Parliament, but in Ireland herself. The danger for those who are opposed to Home Rule, as Mr. Balfour-with his power of going to the very heart of a political issue-pointed out in his speech, lies not in the immediate effect of the proposals, but in the situation which they must inevitably create.

There are more ways of killing a cat than by drowning it; and to turn a bull-terrier loose in the stable-yard (if there is no escape for the cat) may be equally efficacious. This would seem to be the method adopted by the present Ministry. Attempts have been made to drown that cat before. It has, however, invariably made its reappearance. Mr. Birrell has therefore reverted in desperation to the bull-terrier expedient, and these obnoxious individuals—the Irish subjects of the Crown who are loyal to the British Constitution-are to be worried in a Dublin back-yard until such time as they cease resistance or until the British public, wearied of the noise, step in with a bludgeon to give them the coup de grâce or beat off the terrier.

In view of this 'change of venue' on the part of Liberals it is only natural that considerable prominence was given in the debate to the lessons afforded by the working of the Local Government Act. By the constitution of the proposed Council the administrative authority will be vested, so far as the transferred departments are concerned, not, as hitherto, in a minister responsible to Parliament, but in representatives elected on the same basis as the existing local authorities.

Under these circumstances an illuminating sidelight is thrown upon the Government scheme by the past history of these bodies. The same electors will control the new Council. The same class of representatives will be returned. The administration of the central body will be carried out in the same spirit, and with the same objects, as the administration of the units of local government has been in the past.

There must be many who will doubt if such an unworkable scheme -so unsatisfactory to all parties concerned-as that which has been put forward by the Government is ever destined to pass the House of Commons. In case, however, the Bill ever reaches its further stages, it may be of practical use to those who are interested in the Irish problem if I endeavour to sketch out the leading characteristics of Irish local government since the passing of the Act of 1898.

I.

When introducing the Local Government Act of 1898-an Act which abolished the Grand Jury system of Ireland and gave to that country a system of popular local government equivalent to that existing in the United Kingdom-Mr. Gerald Balfour expressed the hope that fair representation, proportioned to their position, education, and unquestioned great experience of country administration, would continue to be given to the resident gentry in Ireland, and that the benefit of their services would not be lost under the new conditions which were to take the place of the pre-existing form of local administration.

This hope was re-echoed by Mr. Redmond in statements which are

of peculiar interest at a time when his honeyed utterances about the interests of the minority are being quoted by his Liberal allies. He spoke as follows:

The grand juries, owing to their constitution, have been to a large extent failures, but it would be absurd to deny that on every one of the juries in Ireland there have been country gentlemen who have shown the greatest aptitude for business, the greatest industry, and the greatest ability; and I say it would be a monstrous thing if by working the elections for these county councils upon narrow sectarian or political lines, men of that class were excluded from the service of their country on these boards.-Parliamentary Debates, the 21st of February, 1898.

A month later the leader of the Nationalist party repeated these views in the House of Commons, promising hearty support to a spirit of toleration, both on his own behalf and on that of his followers.

Whatever influence my friends and I have in Ireland would certainly be used to obtain for this scheme a fair and successful working. Our desire will be to work this Bill on fair and tolerant lines so far as we can. No man's politics or religion will be allowed to be a bar to him if he desires to serve his country on one of the new bodies.-Parliamentary Debates, the 21st of March, 1898.

Alas! the expectations thus raised were doomed to speedy disappointment. So soon as the Bill became an Act, the mask was thrown off. The gospel of peace preached in the House of Commons gave place to a declaration of war on the hillsides of Connemara. The Nationalist leaders, quick to observe the value of the weapon which had been placed in their hands, did not hesitate to use it. The decree of ostracism went forth against all those for whom toleration had been promised. Electors were urged to use these bodies for political purposes, for the purpose of forwarding the cause of Irish freedom,' 'to never elect the supporters of foreign rule to administer local government,' and 'to let it be known beforehand that no man need come and ask for their vote unless he had previously joined the United Irish League.' So successful was the appeal of the Nationalist leaders-so perfect is Nationalist organisation-that three years later Mr. John Redmond, who had declared in the House of Commons that 'it would be a monstrous thing if the elections for these county councils were to be worked on narrow sectarian or political lines,' was able to boast in a speech at Cork that the county and district councils to-day form a network of Nationalist organisations all over Ireland.'

I append a return showing the political complexion of the first and third councils: the latter being the bodies at present in office. These figures have been already quoted publicly on more than one occasion; but as they are so significant, perhaps I may be allowed to once more draw attention to them. An examination of this return establishes, in the most convincing manner, the truth of the assertion that, so far from exercising the new powers conferred upon them

in a spirit of moderation and toleration, the local government electors in Ireland-outside certain counties of Ulster-have virtually excluded from the councils every candidate of the class who differed from them in politics and creed.

It will be seen that the representation retained by this class on the first councils, outside the six counties named, was that which, with few exceptions, was already secured to it by the system of nomination contained in a special provision of the Act of 1898, which provided for the addition to each of the first councils of a nominated element consisting of three grand jury representatives. By this means a small share of representation upon the councils was ensured to the countygentleman class for a period of at least three years. The existence of the nominated element came to an end, however, with the first councils, which went out of office in 1902..

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Omit the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone: the figures for the remaining twenty-seven counties would be:

[blocks in formation]

If it is borne in mind, in connection with the above statistics, that in the returns for 1900 each council contained three of the old grand jury representatives, the decrease in the representatives of the minority on the existing councils is most marked. I may add that in the present state of political representation fourteen counties have not a single Unionist on any county council, while in eight more the minority are represented by one member in each. The seven counties of Munster have only two Unionists in all, and there are a like number in the five counties of Connaught.

What is true in regard to the county councils is true also in regard to the other local authorities.

District councils, boards of guardians, asylums boards-one and all-outside certain counties of Ulster, form part and parcel of Mr. Redmond's ' network of Nationalist organisation.'

Unfortunately I have not got the electoral statistics for the district councils, but the composition of these bodies is indicated by the ex officio members of the county councils-i.e. the chairmen of the

« VorigeDoorgaan »