Chapter XI: In Opposition (3)

MY DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--If I might venture to criticise--you assume that the Conservatives and the Irish would both act as you wish. Neither would. The Conservatives are sharp enough to decline to retain power in order to be discredited warming-pans, and the Irish must demonstrate, now that they have carried the country.

Writing to Hawarden, I have hinted at your views, and asked whether a below the gangway amendment would be accepted, stating generally that the Irish question must be dealt with. If the G.O.M. and if you were to vote for this, we should still be beaten. The party would not have pledged itself to it as a party; the Irish would be satisfied, and if on some issue in a month or two we had an election, we should get the Irish vote.

I should say myself that it would be far better not to have the Irish at Westminster at all; this would meet the conundrum of an Imperial and an English Ministry. As a statistical fact, Ireland does not now contribute much more than the cost of her civil Government to the Imperial Exchequer. Let her contribute nothing, or some fixed sum for armaments (which she probably {301} would not pay). She would be like the Dominion. We should hold the country through the army and the fortresses, and if she tried to separate, we should suspend the Constitution. But as a matter of fact, she would not try. The Irish "idea of patriotism is to serve the country at a good salary, and to get places for cousins, etc. You would see that Irish politics would become a perpetual vestry fight for the spoil.--Yours truly,

H. LABOUCHERE.

_Mr. Labouchere to Mr. Chamberlain_

10 QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, Dec. 30, 1885.

MY DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--This is the last from Hawarden, which I transmit to Healy. The "channel" is in reply to a letter from Healy saying that if Mr. Gladstone prefers other channels, he (Healy) must take leave to withdraw. It is all very well, but Parnell will not be such a fool as to show his hand for the benefit of Mr. Gladstone....[20]

_Mr. T. M. Healy to Mr. Labouchere_

DUBLIN, Dec. 30, 1885.

MY DEAR L.,--I have been in the country holidaying. The statistics you want I think could be got from Col. Nolan's return, which alas shows that you profit £3,000,000 per annum out of us. I speak from memory. Go to Smith in the House of Commons' Library, and ask him to find it out for you. He can get you this and any other statistical facts you need. But some thirty years ago your people dropped showing a separate Irish account and bulked the whole thing in order to diddle us, and {302} therefore it is net easy to reckon the figures out. O'Neill Daunt, however, can supply everything you can't get elsewhere. I think Randolph must have pulled the longbow rather taut to you in every way. I don't believe anything he has been saying. As to Chamberlain he must be crazy to write that way to Morley. Give the G.O.M. power and he could form a Cabinet in a week minus Joe, and the Gates of Birmingham should not prevail against it (it is "Hell" in the original). Your letter ought to do much good. You greatly improved it. It has been quoted into all the Irish papers and commented on. I am glad it appeared, but of course, I know nothing of the genesis. I agree with you about representation in the Imperial Parliament. Your people seem to shy at it, and it would be better for us not to have it, unless your side insists. Still there will be many Irishmen loath to surrender all representation, but they cannot have everything. I don't think Fottrell can physic Chamberlain's disease. He's going to be a Mugwump. I wish him joy of the profession. His chance was to be first Lieutenant to the G.O.M. _cum jure suc_, and he is going to degenerate into a kind of small Forster species of Sorehead. I note what you say about our papers. Like Brer Rabbit we ought to "lay low" just now. Small wonder if Gladstone should be intimidated into minimising coercion. The Heathen rage very furiously against him. I mistrust Grosvenor's influence on Hawarden. If the old man was ten years younger, I'd be for keeping in the Tories till we got County Boards out of them in order to chasten your party in the cold winds of opposition. Our people won't have any fraud of a Bill made for the Whigs to swallow. We shall be reasonable, but so must your party. We can wait, for we are used to it. Your party leaders represent personal ambition, and are in more of a hurry.--Faithfully yours,

T. M. HEALY.

_Mr. T. M. Healy to Mr. Labouchere_

DUBLIN, Dec. 31, 1885.

MY DEAR L.,--I return H. Gladstone's letter which I regard as most important. I am very glad to think Gladstone is not being intimidated out of his position by the pitiless storm beating {303} upon him. I agree that nothing satisfactory can be done until the House meets, and we shall then have a week before the Address is read, and our party will have met, and we shall know its mind, while personal communications will have become possible amongst the Liberal leaders also. I think Chamberlain is ruining himself. If Gladstone sticks to his text he can easily form a Cabinet without him or the Mugwumps, and then where will they be? Trevelyan's speech to-day is very bad too, but they are all ciphers until Gladstone puts his one before their noughts.

I have your letters safely and will return all your former enclosures to-night. I am not writing this from my house or I'd send them with this. I have kept copies of nothing and burn your letters, as the police could always find a pretext here to walk in on you and read your billets-doux.--Faithfully yours,

T. M. HEALY.

[1] The present Strangers' Dining-room.

[2] Sir Henry Lucy, _Sixty Years in the Wilderness_, vol. ii.

[3] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii.

[4] Barry O'Brien, _Life of Parnell_.

[5] Mr. Healy wrote an attack on Mr. Chamberlain's article, as soon as it appeared, in _United Ireland_, under the title of "Queen's Bench Home Rule."

[6] Barry O'Brien, _Life of Parnell_.

[7] The enclosure was letter from Mr. Herbert Gladstone dated October 18.

[8] The proposal was contained in a letter from Mr. Herbert Gladstone to Mr. Labouchere, which Mr. Labouchere quoted in full for Mr. Chamberlain's information. It enumerated six conditions as the basis of a settlement of the Irish Government question.

[9] The election ran from Nov. 23 to Dec. 19. The result was that 333 Liberals were returned, 251 Conservatives, and 86 Parnellites.

[10] Mr. Labouchere quotes the greater part of a letter from Mr. Herbert Gladstone, dated Dec. 7, in which Mr. Herbert Gladstone urges the all importance of the Irish question, and the necessity of ascertaining the plans of the Irish leaders.

[11] The term "hard cash" is quoted from the letter of Dec. 7, from Mr. Herbert Gladstone to Mr. Labouchere, already referred to (see note page 273).

[12] Statement as to Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Scheme was published in the _Leeds Mercury_ and the _Standard_ on December 17, and in the _Times_ and other London papers of December 18.

[13] Winston Spencer Churchill, _Lord Randolph Churchill_, vol. ii.

[14] In _Truth_ of December 24, Mr. Labouchere commented on his own assertion that a letter Mr. Gladstone had written to the Queen was communicated by her to Lord Salisbury, who, in his turn, communicated some of its contents to the _Standard_.

[15] Editor of the _Daily News_ from 1868 till 1886.

[16] _Times_, Dec. 28, 1885.

[17] An old Radical M. P. writes criticising this letter: "Mr. Labouchere has never been regarded by us as a Radical at all, but as a Separatist, and we have always profoundly distrusted his advice upon the few occasions on which it was possible to regard it as serious."--_Times_, Jan. 4, 1886.

[18] Mr. Labouchere here quotes a letter he had received from Mr. Herbert Gladstone, stating Mr. Gladstone's determination not to formulate any scheme which might be taken as a bribe for Irish support, nor to shift from his position, before the Government had spoken, or the Irish party had, in public, terminated their alliance and put the Tories in a minority of 250 to 330.

[19] Mr. Gladstone's idea of a veto was that it might be exercised by the Crown on ordinary matters on the advice of an Irish Minister, but, on certain questions, _e.g._ religion or commerce, perhaps taxation, by the Imperial Ministry.

[20] Mr. Labouchere here quotes in full a letter from Mr. Herbert Gladstone to himself, stating that, if communications have to take place with the Irish party, only one channel will be recognized, viz. Parnell. But he adds he does not think there is any chance of bringing their party to the scratch before Parliament meets, because of the insufficiency of the knowledge they possess to enable them to decide on any action, before the Address debate is actually in progress. He also points out how impossible it would be for Mr. Gladstone to adopt Mr. Chamberlain's policy of waiting, and adds that if the Liberal Party chooses to break up over an Irish Parliament it cannot be helped.

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