I do not add a snare, because they have long ceased to take anybody in. For the purpose of to-night I shall assume that what is called, though inaccurately, Dublin Castle administration is a failure.

Disraeli on the Irish Government.

I have been supplied by a zealous friend, who in this matter of speech-making is, I think, to use Wordsworth's expression, "something betwixt a hindrance and a help," with a sheaf of quotations from distinguished politicians living and dead, belonging mostly to the Unionist side of politics, all criticising somewhat harshly what is called Dublin Castle administration. I have read these quotations, I admit, with a lack-lustre eye. There are fifty-one pages of them, and although carefully indexed, I cannot say they have afforded me very profitable study. They differ very much in ferocity, according to the temperament of the speaker, the period of his political development, the occasion of the delivery of the speech, and, I daresay, sometimes the place of its delivery; and although they all of them breathe the spirit of freedom and liberty, with which I greatly sympathise, many of them are not sufficiently informed with an accurate appreciation of the true facts of the case as to justify me in inflicting them on the House. But there are three short quotations, and three only, which I think I should like to make, and the dignity of the occasion perhaps demands that I should do so. Two are from the speeches of that famous man who was for long and difficult years the leader, and, as some think, the reconstructor, of the Tory party, and the rays of whose illuminating discourse, cast even over the dreary pages of Hansard, which he himself has called the Dunciad of politics, make even these volumes worthy of perusal. Mr. Disraeli, speaking in this House in 1844— a long time ago, but time does not count for much in the history of Ireland said:" I always thought that the greatest cause of misery in Ireland was identity of institutions with England. It has become a great historical aphorism that Ireland is to be the great difficulty of the Minister. Now this is an opinion in which I never shared. I never believed that Ireland would be a great difficulty because I feel certain that a Minister of great ability and of great power would, when he found himself at the head of a great majority, settle that question. What, then, is the duty of the English Minister? To effect by his policy all those changes which a revolution would do by force. That is the Irish question in its integrity. It is quite evident that to effect this we must have an executive in

Ireland which shall bear a much nearer relation to the leading parties and characters of the country than it does at present." Then he adds characteristically enough:-"I beg distinctly to say I never changed my principles on Irish policy, or in any other respect.' That is in 1844. "I say this without reservation. At no time, at no place, in no circumstances, have I ever professed any other principles than I now profess. They are Tory principles, the national principles of the democracy of England.”

In 1868 Mr. Disraeli was challenged in this House with the use of these words, and I agree that the Disraeli of 1868 was a different one from the Disraeli of 1844; and how did he defend himself? With reference to the passage which has been quoted from a speech made by me, I may remark that it appeared to me at the time I made it that nobody listened to it. It seemed to me I was pouring water upon sand, but it seems now that the water came from a golden goblet. With regard to the passage from that speech, there are many remarks which, if I wanted to convince, I might legitimately make, but I do not care to, and I do not wish to, because in my historical conscience the sentiment of that speech was right. It may have been expressed with that heedless rhetoric which I believe is the appanage of all who sit below the gangway; but in my historical conscience the sentiment of that speech was right."

The Duke of Devonshire on a "Great and Bold Reconstruction" of the Government.

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The third quotation, and the last, is from a living statesman of great authority, whom, though a Free-trader, Tariff Reformers will, I am sure, listen to with respect, and who, though a Unionist, can always secure a patient and attentive hearing from any audience of Home Rulers-I mean the Duke of Devonshire. The Duke, speaking in Belfast as long ago as November 5th, 1885, said as follows:“I believe that the Irish Government, the structure of the Irish Government, the system of the Irish Government, has been most unjustly assailed, and I believe that it is not responsible for many of the sins which have been laid to its charge; but at the same time I am perfectly willing to admit that it is very possible, and even probable, that the Irish Government as now constituted is not the best fitted in all respects to discharge all the functions which it has now to discharge, still less "—and I ask attention to this—“ to undertake new and more important duties. I would not shrink from a great and bold reconstruction of Irish Government. I would

not be disposed to deny it is probable that at present it is too centralised in Dublin, and that owing to the delegation of so many of the functions of Government to responsible boards it is wanting in vigour and responsibility. I would not shrink from a bold reconstruction of the Government of Ireland; but I maintain that as Ireland stands to-day the Executive Government must retain considerable power over any local boards which may hereafter be created, and I would endeavour so to frame those powers as to make them capable of relaxation, perhaps ultimately of relinquishment, in response to any proof we may receive from the Irish people of their fitness for self-government, their fitness for the assumption of those responsibilities." Well, it is at all events in the spirit of those quotations that his Majesty's Government have approached the solution or partial solution of this still unsolved problem. I will labour the point no further. If anybody here believes that the present system of administration of Irish affairs is sound and sensible, that it is a system likely to train the Irish people in the habits of self-respect and economy, I must wait to see how that individual seeks to make out his case.

"Switched Off" from the Current of National Life.

I hope I need not say I bring no accusation whatsoever against Dublin Castle or against Irish officials. The language of praise from one who has been such a short time in his office would be fulsome; the language of censure impertinent. For one or two officials with whom I have been brought into close personal contact I already entertain a feeling of respect which I doubt not under favourable circumstances might ripen into affection, and I do not think that any Chief Secretary, with the slightest tincture of popular feeling in his bone, can enter the gloomy portals of Dublin Castle without a sinking of the heart almost amounting to an abandonment of hope. It is not that Dublin Castle is a scene of jobbery and corruption. It may have been so once. It certainly is so no longer. But it is, to use a familiar expression, switched off from the great current of national life and feeling; and one cannot feel-I do not believe anybody within the walls of Dublin Castle can feelthat that is the way to secure the regeneration of Ireland. No pulse of real life runs through the place. The main current of Irish life as it rushes past its walls passes by almost unheeded. There it stands, "remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow," regarding this great stream of national life and feeling with a curious expression,

mingled, it may be, with cynicism and amusement, coupled also, I admit, with a passionate tutorial desire to teach the wild Irish people how to behave themselves, just as the great Roman provincial of Anno Domini, 120, living in his delightful villa in York, or Colchester, or Bath, may have regarded the vagaries of the inhabitants of this island.

The Departments of Irish Government.

The total number of departments, boards, and offices, excluding the Admiralty and War Office, engaged in the administration of public business in Ireland is, I believe, a matter of controversy. I have, however, been supplied with a list of forty-five, and they are grouped as follows: There are ten under the full control of the Irish Government the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the General Prisons Board, reformatory and industrial schools, inspectors of lunatics, General Registrar Office, the Department of the Registrar of Petty Session Clerks, resident magistrates, Crown solicitors, and clerks of the Crown. There are three not so fully controlled-the Land Commission, the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests, and the Public Record Office. There are five not all under the control of the Irish Government except as far as appointment and the framing of rules the Board of National Education, the Board of Intermediate Education, the Commissioners of Endowed Schools, the National Gallery, and the Royal Hibernian Academy. Not under the control of the Irish Government, but with the Chief Secretary as president ex officio, are the Local Government Board, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and the Congested Districts Board. There are four boards exercising statutory powers in Ireland not under Government control-the Public Loan Fund Board, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the Royal University, and the Queen's Colleges. There are eight not controlled by the Irish Government, and of these the most important are the Supreme Court of Judicature, the Registry of Deeds, the Local Registration of Titles, and the Railway and Canal Commission. There are English departments working in Ireland not under the control of the Irish Government. There are twelve of these, among them being the Customs and Inland Revenue and the Board of Trade. (An hon. member: "Board of Works.")

Departments Left Outside the Bill.

Here at all events is a sufficient area of choice, and the question we have to determine is how many of these departments, boards,

and bodies should we attempt to place under some kind of real and effective control. Some, of course, for obvious reasons lie altogether without the scope of any such proposals as ours will be found to be, such as the Customs and Inland Revenue and the General Post Office. Neither do we in any way propose to affect the Supreme Court of Judicature and its offices, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Land Commission, the General Prisons Board-all these and others are left outside the provisions of the Bill.

Departments Affected by the Bill.

We propose to make the following departments and boards subject to the provisions of this Bill. They are eight in number-—the Local Government Board, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, the Congested Districts Board, the Commissioners of Public Works, the Commissioners of National Education, the Intermediate Education Board, the Inspection of Reformatory and Industrial Schools, and the Registrar-General. By the provisions of the Bill the Lord Lieutenant, after consultation with the Irish Council, may by Order in Council apply the provisions of the Bill to certain other departments not of an important character. The Irish Lights and the Lunatic Asylums are among the number. But for the purposes of our discussion of this Bill I think we will confine ourselves to the eight named departments which I have just set out.

The Local Government Board,

I will say a word or two about each of them. First, there is the Local Government Board. The Local Government Board is well housed in the old Customs House of Dublin. The Chief Secretary is its ex officio president, and Sir Henry Robinson is its exceedingly able vice-president; the Under-Secretary is an ex officio member, and there are two other gentlemen. It has no endowments of its own or allocated specially to it. Its Parliamentary vote now amounts to £76,000. In addition to the well-understood duties of the Local Government Board, including Poor Law administration, it has now cast upon it, under the provisions of those very useful Labourers' Cottages Acts, the control and the responsibility of looking after the housing of the labourers in every part of Ireland; and the fund it may be called upon to administer in connection with these Acts may assume- and will assume-very considerable dimensions, much larger than the sum appearing this year on the Vote. It has a large staff of inspectors, general and medical, audi