|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 34
"From whatever point of view we envisage the English Government in
Ireland," writes Mr Paul-Dubois, "we are confronted with the same
appearance of constitutional forms masking a state of things which
is a compound of autocracy, oppression, and corruption."
Such a system does not possess within itself the seed of continuance.
Disraeli announced, somewhat prematurely, the advent of an age in which
institutions that could not bear discussion would have to go. Matthew
Arnold yearned for a time in which the manifestly absurd would be
abandoned. In the flame of either dictum the present "government" of
Ireland shrivels to ashes, and affairs are ripe for the application of
both. Here, as in the Colonies, the people must enter into its heritage.
The days are for ever dead in which a nation could be ruled in daily
disregard of its history, its ideals, its definite programme.
On the minutiae of administration I do not mean to touch. When the whole
spirit, atmosphere, and ethos are anti-moral it is idle to chronicle any
chance rectitude of detail. If a man is a murderer it is not much to his
credit to observe that he has triumphed over the primitive temptation to
eat peas with his knife. If a government is based on contempt for public
opinion, as its fundamental principle, no useful purpose is served by a
record of the occasions on which a policeman has been known to pass a
citizen in the street without beating him. But there is one further
confirmation of the view, here advanced, to omit which would be to
ignore the most significant fact of our time. Certain departments such
as the Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture,
recent creations, have been freshened by the introduction of a
representative, non-official element. Others such as the Estates
Commission have been under the control of officials of a new type, able
men who do not conceal the fact that they believe in Ireland. All of
these new Boards have struck root in the national life to a depth never
reached by any of their predecessors. The lesson of this change is the
lesson of freedom. In the precise degree in which government trusts the
people will the people trust government. It remains to complete the
process by a scheme of autonomy that shall make every administrator a
trustee and executant of the will of the nation.
There are other organs of "government" in Ireland of which the reader
may reasonably expect to hear something. He will permit me to discharge
my obligations by copying out certain paragraphs from an old note-book:
"_Judges_.--It is a mistake to suppose that none of the Irish
Judges know any law. Our judiciary includes many masterly lawyers,
and many adroit men of the world. But all of them are political
appointments. Hence in ordinary cases a man will get clean justice.
But the moment politics flutter on the breeze, the masked battery
on the Bench is uncurtained to bellow forth anti-Nationalist
shrapnel. Irish Judges, in fact, are very like the horse in the
schoolboy's essay: 'The horse is a noble and useful quadruped, but,
when irritated, he ceases to do so."
"_Police_.--The Royal Irish Constabulary was formerly an Army of
occupation. Now, owing to the all but complete disappearance of
crime, it is an Army of no occupation."
"_Dublin Castle in general_.--Must be seen to be disbelieved."
Since there does not exist a British Empire, it is necessary to invent
one. Since there does not exist an Irish government, in any modern and
intelligible sense of the word, it is necessary to invent one. The
common creative mould out of which both must be struck is the principle
of Home Rule.
CHAPTER IX
AFTER HOME RULE
The advocates of Home Rule are invited to many ordeals by way of
verifying their good faith; perhaps the heaviest ordeal is that of
prophecy. Very well, people say, what are you going to do with Home Rule
when you get it? What will Irish politics be like in, say, 1920? If we
show embarrassment or offer conflicting answers, the querist is
persuaded that we are, as indeed he thought, vapouring sentimentalists,
not at all accustomed to live in a world of clear ideas and unyielding
facts. The demand, like many others made upon us, is unreal and
unreasonable. What are the English going to do with Home Rule when they
get it? What will German or Japanese or American politics be like in
1920? These are all what Matthew Arnold calls "undiscovered things." The
future resolutely declines to speak out of her turn. She has a trick of
keeping her secrets well, better than she keeps her promises. Professor
Dicey wrote a Unionist tract, very vehement and thunderous, in which he
sought to injure Home Rule by styling it a leap in the dark. But the
whole conduct of life, in its gravest and its lightest issues alike, is
a perpetual leap in the dark. Every change of public policy is a raid
across the frontiers of the unknown; or rather, as I prefer to put it,
every fundamental reform is essentially an Act of Faith in to-morrow,
and so it is with Home Rule.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|