Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/36

28] deal on their return to power. He also stated that any Irish Parliament established must be "subordinate and not an independent body". There was no formal alliance between the Liberals and the Irish party, but "alliance, in the sense of sympathy and the desire to co-operate was as strong as ever it was." That this attitude was satisfactory to the bulk of the English and Scotch Liberals was evidenced by the divisions, which showed that only 43 Nationalists were found to support Mr. Redmond, while 300 Unionists and others voted against the amendment, although no member of the Ministerial bench had taken part in the debate.

Two more evenings were devoted to the discussion of Irish affairs. Mr. Field (St. Patrick's, Dublin City) urging (Feb. 17) the purchase or control by the State of the Irish railways, and Mr. Davitt (Mayo, S.) insisting upon the lukewarmness of the Government in dealing with the distress in the West of Ireland. Mr. Field, to make good his case, admitted the inefficiency of the Irish railway management and their high rates. Mr. Gerald Balfour (Leeds, C.) pointed out, and in this was confirmed by Mr. J. Bryce (Aberdeen, E.), that Ireland was the very last country where the State should own the railroads. If they belonged to the State the Government would control all employed upon them, and the experience of the Government was not such as to encourage them to increase the servants of the State. He believed that the best means of improving the Irish railways would be by partial voluntary amalgamations, but the amalgamation of all under a central body would necessitate the appointment of a Board of Control, which would be difficult to manage; and, if represented by a minister in Parliament, Irish members would expect the railways to be managed exclusively in the interests of the traders and travellers, and without regard to the shareholders and bondholders. Mr. Field ultimately withdrew his amendment, so that the actual support it might have obtained could not be ascertained. The ground was thus left open to Mr. Davitt's attack upon the Government on account of the distress in the West of Ireland. The lines followed by the speaker on this occasion differed little if at all from his previous indictments of the Government, and the remedy he proposed, "a scheme of migration" to lands compulsorily purchased by the Congested Districts Board, had been urged on more than one previous occasion. The Irish members as a body supported Mr. Davitt, although each had points of difference from him with regard to the efficacy of his proposed remedy. The Secretary for Ireland, Mr. G. Balfour (Leeds, C.), whilst recognising the existence of a certain, but not very serious, distress in the West of Ireland, maintained, and illustrated his argument by instances, that the real object of Mr. Davitt and Mr. O'Brien was not so much to benefit the unfortunate peasants of the West of Ireland as to stir up an agitation like that which had devastated and disgraced Ireland some years