Gladstone has done. If his
policy be in itself dangerous and disloyal to the true interests of the
people of our islands, let it be condemned. But if it be the policy
which has the best promise for the peace, the prosperity, and the mutual
good will of those peoples, he and those who follow him would be
culpable indeed were they to be deterred by the condemnation which they
have so often expressed, and which they still express, for some of the
past acts of a particular party, from declaring that the aims of that
party were substantially right aims, and from now pressing upon the
country what their conscience approves.

However, as the Home Rule Liberals and Nationalists, taken together, are
in a minority (although a minority which obtains recruits at many
bye-elections) in the present Parliament, it is not from them that fresh
proposals are expected. They will, of course, continue to speak, write,
and agitate on behalf of the views they hold. But practical attempt to
deal with Irish troubles must for the present come from the Tory
Ministry; for in the English system of government those who command a
Parliamentary majority are responsible for legislation as well as
administration, and are censured not merely if their legislation is bad,
but if it is not forthcoming when events call for it.

Why, it may be asked, should Lord Salisbury's Government burn its
fingers over Ireland, as so many governments have burnt their fingers
before? Why not let Ireland alone, giving to foreign affairs and to
English and Scottish reforms all the attention which these too much
neglected matters need?

Well would it be for England, as well as for English Ministries, if
Ireland could be simply let alone, her maladies left to be healed by the
soft, slow hand of nature. But Irish troubles call aloud to be dealt
with, and that promptly. They stand in the way of all other reforms,
indeed of all other business. Letting alone has been tried, and it has
succeeded no better, even in times less urgent than the present, than
the usual policy of coercion followed by concession, or concession
followed by coercion.

There are three aspects of the Irish question, three channels by which
the troubles of the "distressful island" stream down upon us, forcing
whoever now rules or may come to rule in England to attempt some plan
for dealing with them. I will take them in succession.

The first is the Parliamentary difficulty. In the British House of
Comm