Show PARNELLS PROGRAMS I Mr Parnells new programme for Ireland Ire-land which he announced in a speech at Dublin last Tuesday i1 i somewhat of anew a-new departure for him although the cry for a repeal of the Union is not new it having been long scheme of OConneH i To Englishmen Irelands demands have always looked preposterous and impossible impossi-ble but still tliQ Government in London has usually acceded to them not gracefully grace-fully and as a matter of right to accord I which was but to do justice but I after much agitation in Ireland usually I accompanied by much crime and outrage I The Catholic Association of half a century cen-tury ago was looked upon with the same I suspicion and distrust as the Land League of today is and yet the Association I eventually obtained that for which it agitated and even the Land League has I obtained the three Fs a thing that in I 1880 was looked upon as being a demand de-mand of the most revolutionary kind I Already the demand for Home Rule has been spoken of as iv possibility for Ireland I Ire-land and will doubtless be conceded yet although there is no reason in the world ito i-to suppose that the demand for separation sep-aration and complete autonamy for Ireland will be considered by England Eng-land for one moment for such a thing would be a constant menace and danger to England English writers are turning to the United States and the federal principle in the hopes of finding a safe practical and happy form of government I gov-ernment for Ireland Mr Matthew Arnold in his article A word more about America which appeared in the I Nineteenth Century for February last in speaking about our institutions and their happy workings said Well then our greatest institution the House of Commons we cannot say is at present working like the American institutions easily and successfully success-fully uppose1 we now pass f T 1 1 1 Ml 4 nnl ZC nnM C rl tO ireillllU 0 will 1101 > uatk JL uuj 111311 tutions work easily and successfully in Ireland I Ire-land to ask such a question would bo too bitter too cruel a mockery Those hateful cases which have been tried in the Dublin Courts this last year suggest the dark and illomened word which applies to the whole state of Ireland curtiJiawa Antinatur al antinature that is the word which aries irresistibly in my mind as I survey Ireland Everything is unnatural therethe proceedings proceed-ings of the English who rule the proceedings proceed-ings of the Irish who resist But it is with the workings of our English institutions there that I am now concerned if II CIt C-It is unnatural that Ireland should be governed by Lord Spencer and Mr Campbell Bannermaii unnatural as for Scotland to be governed by Lord Cranbrook and Mr Healy It is unnatural that Ireland should be governed under a Crimes Act But there is necessity replies the Government Well then if there is such evil necessity it is unnatural un-natural that the Irish newspapers should be free to write as they write and the I risk members mem-bers to speak as they speakfree to inflame and further exasperate a seditious peoples minds and to promote the continuance of the evil necessity By our patchwork patch-work proceedings we set up indeed a make believe of Irelands being constitutionally governed But it is not constitutionally governed gov-erned nobody supposes itto be constitutionally constitution-ally governed except perhaps that born swallower of all claptrap the British Philistine The Irish themselves the allimportant personages in the case are not taken in our makebelieve does not produce pro-duce in them the very least gratitude the very least softening No truer insight into the condition of Ireland was ever had no truer words were ever written or spoken of her than these by Mathew Arnold He suggests a remedy for this sad condition which is local selfgovernment for Ireland the same as obtains in the United States He pays But here again let us look at what is done by people who in politics think straight and see clear let us observe what is done in the United States ir But the several States are nevertheless real and important wholes each with its own legislature and to each the control within its own borders of all except imperial concerns is freely committed The United States Government intervenes only to keep order in the last resort Let us suppose a similar plan applied to Ireland The British landlord would no longer determine the dealings with land in an Irish province nor the British Protestant the dealings with church and education Apart from imperial concerns or from disorder such as to render military interventionneces sary the government in London would leave Ireland to manage itself Lord Spencer and Mr Campbell Banner man would come back to England C Landquestions gamelaws police j church education would be regulated bv the people and legislature of Leinster for Leinster of Ulster for Ulster of Monster and Corniaught for Munster and Con naught Such is the cure for Irelands wrongs 1 that Mathew Arnold suggests and which if applied no doubt would atttain the end sought But Mr Arnold does not stand alone in advocating such a system of government for Ireland Mr J Leslie Field I in the same magazine through which Mr Arnolds views were given gives expression to similar views in the August number He says A system of county government will undoubtedly un-doubtedly form part of the programme of our next Liberal Government to extend a System of provincial Home Rule which would meet the views 01 the Irish people would not be an immoderate proposal As regards legislation Ireland would be divided into six Federal States of which Ulster would form two seas to divide as far possible the Catholic and Protestant Protest-ant populations and the county of Dublin ll1l r r I one Leinster Munster and Connaught I would form as near as could be the areas of tho three remaining Each State would be governed by its own Legislature and l I have complete control ovepolice land and property laws and all internal taxation as I in the case of the United States If such a planshall be adopted in place i of Mr Parnells programme the world I I may still see Ireland happy prosperous and peaceful It is more feasible than I Mr Parnells I |