The Nation, November 16, 1878.
The disruption of the Home Rule party, or its rejection by the Irish people and consequent disruption, brings up the question of Parliamentary representation before the Irish National party. The ballot bill enables the Irish voter to support whom he will, without the fear of eviction before his eyes, if he voted against his landlord’s candidate. This puts a new face upon the question, and the National party is obliged to take an interest in the question. The 103 seats in Parliament appropriated to Ireland will be filled somehow, whether they will or not, and they will have the same kind of representation in the future as in the past, unless the National party take an interest in the matter. They cannot afford to neglect the question. If Ireland is to be properly represented, it must be by the people’s party taking an interest in the matter. The world must be educated up to the view of the Irish question taken by the Irish people.
Heretofore the National party has held aloof from the Parliamentary question because of the treachery of the men who misrepresented Ireland. Those men have given a wrong impression of the Irish question to the world. They have given the impression abroad that all that Ireland wanted was a fair Federal union with the British Empire—a thing that the Irish people will never willingly consent to; not one of the 103 representatives in Parliament from Ireland ever hints that he represents a people who desire a separate national existence. The Irish National party has never had a proper representative in Parliament, and consequently the world does not understand the real sentiment of the people. The National party alone represents that sentiment, and unless that party takes some stand upon that question, the misrepresentation will go in the future as in the past. The time has come when, however disagreeable it may be, the National party must take an interest in the question of who shall go to the House of Commons, and endeavour to correct this wrong impression that has gone abroad. The political interests and aspirations of the Irish people are very different from those which the present Irish members would have the world believe. The National party should send representatives to the House of Commons. If that was accomplished in a limited degree, and did not effect the passage of any measures, it would accomplish two good things—first, a better understanding to the world at large of the Irish question, and twenty or thirty men in Parliament honestly representing Irish public opinion; and second, the absence of so many tricksters and charlatans who are injuring Ireland by their presence in that body.
There are doubtless men in Ireland who are honest and patriotic, who would be contented with certain concessions to Ireland. But nothing in the way of concession that could be wrung from the British Parliament would satisfy the Irish people or induce them to lay aside the national cause that has been handed down for so many years. The national cause is one that has struggled for seven centuries, and cannot be wiped out by a few measures wrung from the English Parliament. The question of Parliamentary agitation is a delicate one. It has brought to grief nearly every Nationalist who has meddled with it. Either their motives have been misrepresented, or they have been swayed by some covert idea for bettering their own condition by getting into the House of Commons. It needs someone who would not get into Parliament if he could nor could if he would. The question is regarded with suspicion in Ireland, and its representatives must expect opposition, and will be misunderstood. The question must be faced with courage and persistency. The present policy of the English Government is one that is well calculated to West-Britonise Ireland. The present Prime Minister is cajoling the Irish people by concessions to Irish Catholics. The Government is endeavouring to win the priesthood to their own side by their concessions; but the Irish people will not permit even the sacred priesthood to be used as an instrument to crush out the national spirit in Ireland.
The West-British sentiment will be turned against the national policy as much as possible, and the English Government seeks to use the Irish priesthood for that purpose; but I do not think that effort will succeed with them if the national party would bring forward a tangible national policy. The national party should oppose Mr. Butt, the foremost member of the Irish group, because he has proved false to the sentiment of the people; and now he is doing all that he can to imperialise Ireland, and he comes forward under the fostering care of the Government. He has failed in his role of leader of the Irish Home Rule party.
There were over fifty men who went with him into the House of Commons, and they have either proved insincere or dishonest. Then there were the non-resident members as they might be called—men who, having been elected, use their positions to further their private ends in their professions. Then there are the intermediaries, who are men who lack the courage to act up to their convictions. Then there is another section composed of the honest men, who are represented by Mr. Parnell. They are known as the ‘obstructionist party,’ and are composed of young and talented Irishmen who are possessed of courage and persistency, and do what they can to assist Ireland.
I review still further the character of the men who represent Ireland in the House of Commons. I do not find in any one of them a man who fitly represents the Irish people unless it is Mr. Parnell, whose popularity shows that he does represent the sentiments of the people. The Home Rule party does not represent the Irish popular feeling. The aim of the Home Rule party, as defined by Mr. Power, the member from Mayo, when in this country, was an effort to place Ireland in the same relation to the British Empire that the State of New York bears to the Union. It is a scheme that the Irish people will not tolerate, and they have thrown the platform and the party aside, and it exists only in name. As to what the national party should do, I say I would suggest:—
First.—That self-government is the chief want of Ireland.
Second.—That the representatives should oppose the Government, tooth and nail, in every effort to use coercive measures in Ireland.
Third.—That the land question should be adjusted. No evictions save for the non-payment of a just and equitable rent, and the gradual growth of a small landed proprietorship, holding title from the State.
Also the development of Irish industries, the betterment of the dwellings of the Irish peasantry, and an educational system that is not anti-national. Lastly, the right of the Irishman to carry arms. A programme somewhat similar to the one outlined, I think, will meet the views of the National party.
Upon my return to Ireland, I hope that, as a loyal Irishman, under certain conditions and restrictions, I should advise, as an Irish Nationalist, that some such line of conduct should be pursued. I believe in opposing anti-national people wherever found. I will not advise Irishmen to give up the national cause, because in the face of the present agitation it is necessary to use a policy of expediency to oppose it.