"The real root of the disaffection which exhibits itself at present in
the guise of Fenianism, and which has been suddenly kindled into flame
by the arming of the Irish in the American civil war, but which existed
before in a nameless and smouldering state, is, as I believe, the want
of national institutions, of a national capital, of any objects of
national reverence and attachment, and consequently of anything
deserving to be called national life. The English Crown and Parliament
the Irish have never learnt, nor have they had any chance of learning,
to love, or to regard as national, notwithstanding the share which was
given them, too late, in the representation. The greatness of England is
nothing to them. Her history is nothing, or worse. The success of
Irishmen in London consoles the Irish in Ireland no more than the
success of Italian adventurers in foreign countries (which was very
remarkable) consoled the Italian people. The drawing off of Irish
talent, in fact, turns to an additional grievance in their minds. Dublin
is a modern Tara, a metropolis from which the glory has departed; and
the viceroyalty, though it pleases some of the tradesmen, fails
altogether to satisfy the people. 'In Ireland we can make no appeal to
patriotism, we can have no patriotic sentiments in our schoolbooks, no
patriotic emblems in our schools, because in Ireland everything
patriotic is rebellious.' These were the words uttered in my hearing,
not by a complaining demagogue, but by a desponding statesman. They
seemed to me pregnant with fatal truths.
"If the craving for national institutions, and the disaffection bred in
this void of the Irish people's heart, seem to us irrational and even
insane, in the absence of any more substantial grievance, we ought to
ask ourselves what would become of our own patriotism if we had no
national institutions, no objects of national loyalty and reverence,
even though we might be pretty well governed, at least in intention, by
a neighbouring people whom we regarded as aliens, and who, in fact,
regarded us pretty much in the same light. Let us first judge ourselves
fairly, and then judge the Irish, remembering always that they are more
imaginative and sentimental, and need some centre of national feeling
and affection more than ourselves."[50]
And all this was written sixty-seven years after the Union of 1800.
Mr. Goldwin Smith then deals with the subject of the Irish and Scotch
unions much in the same way as Mr. Lecky.
"The incorporation of the Scotch nation with the English, being
conducted on the right principles by the great Whig statesman of Anne,
has been perfectly successful. The attempt to incorporate the Irish
nation with the English and Scotch, the success of which would have
been, if possible, a still greater blessing, being conducted by very
different people and on very different principles, has unhappily failed.
What might have been the result if even the Hanoverian sovereigns had
done the personal duty to their Irish kingdom which they have
unfortunately neglected, it is now too late to inquire. The Irish Union
has missed its port, and, in order to reach it, will have to tack again.
We may hold down a dependency, of course, by force, in Russian and
Austrian fashion; but force will never make the hearts of two nations
one, especially when they are divided by the sea. Once get rid of this
deadly international hatred, and there will be hope of real union in the
future."[51]
Mr. Goldwin Smith finally proposes a "plan" by which the "deadly
international hatred" might be got rid of, and a "real union" brought
about. Here it is.
"1. The residence of the Court at Dublin, not merely to gratify the
popular love of royalty and its pageantries, which no man of sense
desires to stimulate, but to assure the Irish people, in the only way
possible as regards the mass of them, that the sovereign of the United
Kingdom is really their sovereign, and that they are equally cared for
and honoured with the other subjects of the realm. This would also tend
to make Dublin a real capital, and to gather and retain there a portion
of the Irish talent which now seeks its fortune elsewhere.
"2. An occasional session (say once in every three years) of the
Imperial Parliament in Dublin, partly for the same purposes as the last
proposal, but also because the circumstances of Ireland are likely to
be, for some time at least, really peculiar, and the personal
acquaintance of our legislators with them is the only sufficient
security for good Irish legislation. There could be no serious
difficulty in holding a short session in the Irish capital, where there
is plenty of accommodation for both Houses.
"3. A liberal measure of local self-government for Ireland. I would not
vest the power in any single assembly for all Ireland, because Ulster is
really a different country from the other provinces. I would give each
province a council of its own, and empower that council to legislate
(subject, of course, to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament) on all
matters not essential to the political and legal unity of the empire, in
which I would include local education. The provincial councils should of
course be elective, and the register of electors might be the same as
that of electors to the Imperial Parliament. In England itself the
extension of local institutions, as political training schools for the
masses, as checks upon the sweeping action of the great central
assembly, and as the best organs of legislation in all matters requiring
(as popular education, among others, does) adaptation to the
circumstances of particular districts, would, I think, have formed a
part of any statesmanlike revision of our political system. Here, also,
much good might be done, and much evil averted, by committing the
present business of quarter sessions, other than the judicial business,
together with such other matters as the central legislative might think
fit to vest in local hands, to an assembly elected by the county."[52]
Thus it will be seen that twenty years ago Mr. Goldwin Smith anticipated
Mr. Chamberlain's scheme of provincial councils, and got a good way on
the road to an Irish Parliament.
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