in for a time, but not curing it. Mr. Gladstone proposed to buy
out the landlords and then leave an Irish Parliament to restore social
order, with that authority which it would derive from having the will of
the people behind it; because he held that when the people felt the law
to be of their own making, and not imposed from without, their sentiment
would be enlisted on its side, and the necessity for a firm Government
recognized. This plan, has, however, been rejected, so the choice was
left of a fresh Coercion Act, or of some scheme, necessarily a costly
scheme, for getting rid of the source of trouble by transferring the
land of Ireland to the peasantry. The present Government, while guided
by Sir M. Hicks-Beach, who had some knowledge of Ireland, did its best
to persuade the landlords to accept reduced rents, while the Nationalist
leaders, on their side, sought to restrain the people from outrages. But
the armistice did not last. The Ministry yielded to the foolish counsels
of its more violent supporters, and entrusted Irish affairs to the hands
of a Chief Secretary without previous knowledge of the island. An
unusually severe Coercion Act has been brought in and passed by the aid
of the dissentient Liberals. And we now see this Act administered with a
mixture of virulence and incompetence to which even the dreary annals of
Irish misgovernment present few parallels. The feeling of the English
people is rising against the policy carried out in their name. So far
from being solved, the problem of social order becomes every day more
acute.

There remains the question of a reform of local government. For many
years past, every English Ministry has undertaken to frame a measure
creating a new system of popular rural self-government in England. It is
the first large task of domestic legislation which we ask from
Parliament. When such a scheme is proposed, can Ireland be left out of
it? Should she be left out, the argument that she is being treated
unequally and unfairly, as compared with England, would gain immense
force; because the present local government of Ireland is admittedly
less popular, less efficient, altogether less defensible, than even that
of England which we are going to reform. If, therefore, the theory that
the Imperial Parliament is both anxious and able to do its duty by
Ireland is to be maintained, Ireland, too, must have her scheme of local
government. And a scheme of local government is a large pro