of being oppressive, extravagant, and corrupt, if there
were no executive power to command their confidence
and enforce obedience. Without the previous creation
of some authority of that kind it would be sheer madness
to offer Ireland the fatal boon of local self-government.
It would enormously increase without conciliating the
power of the Nationalists, and would make the administration
of Ireland by constitutional means simply impossible.
The policy of the Liberal Unionists is thus much too
large or much too small. It is too small to conciliate,
and therefore too large to be given with safety.
All these proposed concessions are liable to one insuperable
objection; they would each and all enable the Irish
to extort Home Rule, but under circumstances which
would rob it of its grace and repel gratitude.
Mill has some admirable observations bearing on this
subject, and I venture to quote the following passage:
“The greatest imperfection of popular local
institutions, and the chief cause of the failure which
so often attends them, is the low calibre of the men
by whom they are almost always carried on. That
these should be of a very miscellaneous character
is, indeed, part of the usefulness of the institution;
it is that circumstance chiefly which renders it a
school of political capacity and general intelligence.
But a school supposes teachers as well as scholars;
the utility of the instruction greatly depends on its
bringing inferior minds into contact with superior,
a contact which in the ordinary course of life is
altogether exceptional, and the want of which contributes
more than anything else to keep the generality of
mankind on one level of contented ignorance....
It is quite hopeless to induce persons of a high class,
either socially or intellectually, to take a share
of local administration in a corner by piecemeal as
members of a Paving Board or a Drainage Commission."[17]
Mr. Mill goes on to argue that it is essential to
the safe working of any scheme of local self-government
that it should be under the control of a central authority
in harmony with public opinion.
When the “Unionists” begin, if they ever
do begin, seriously to deliberate on the question
of self-government for Ireland, they will find that
they have only two practicable alternatives—the
maintenance of the present system, or some scheme
of Home Rule on the lines of Mr. Gladstone’s
much misunderstood Bill. And the ablest men among
the “Unionists” are beginning to perceive
this. The Spectator has in a recent article
implored Mr. Chamberlain to desist from any further
proposal in favour of self-government for Ireland,
because the inevitable result would be to split up
the Unionist party; and Mr. Chamberlain, as we have
seen, has accepted the advice. Another very able
and very logical opponent of Home Rule has candidly
avowed that the only alternative to Home Rule is the
perpetuation of “things as they are.”
Ireland, he thinks, “possesses none of the conditions
necessary for local self-government.” His
own view, therefore, is “that in Ireland, as
in France, an honest, centralized administration of
impartial officials, and not local self-government,
would best meet the real wants of the people.”