WHAT S C I E N C E IS SAYING ABOUT IRELAND Science—(i) Knowledge ; (2) Certainty grounded on Demonstration. JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. LENG KINGSTON- & CO., UPON-HULL. SOLD IN LONDON BY HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. I 8 8 I. WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING ABOUT IRELAND. oo^Oc ABOUT Ireland and the Irish, science is asking the following thirty-nine questions :— ( i ) " What is an Irishman ?" Not " w h a t is the Irishman of the north-west ?" for he is not a pure Irishman; and not " w h a t is the well-to-do Irishman " ? who, though called one (as, for instance, the great Duke of Wellington), has often not a drop of aboriginal Celtic blood in him ; but what is the creature of the lowest type that is sometimes called " the wild Irishman," and sometimes " the barbarous Celt ? " W h a t is the real aboriginal Irishman of the west and of the south ? W h a t place does he hold in the scale of human development, and what kind of government does he require in accordance with that place ? Ireland, says Sir George Campbell, in the west- imh north-west and south-west is inhabited by people, so grc^ far as their material condition is concerned, as savage as any savages in the world. Whole families, he says, live in the same room as cows, pigs, and hens. B 2 4 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING They are clothed in tatters, and subsist in the poorest way, untidily cultivating very small patches of half-reclaimed land with no implement higher than the spade, & c , &c. Perhaps there is no savage lower than the inhabitant of Terra del Fuego, who, although living in a cold country, has never learned to build even a hovel. Most people will agree that the aboriginal Irish Celt is higher than the inhabitant of Terra del Fuego. Higher, too, than the Terra del Fuegan is the Digger Indian. T h e Digger Indian is called the Digger Indian because he subsists upon roots that he digs out of the ground. H e wants energy to work steadily or provide for the future. H e lives in the rudest of huts, and looks up with superstitious reverence to his ignorant priests or medicine men. T h e aboriginal Celt also lives (with his pigs) in the rudest of huts, subsists on roots that he digs out of the ground, and looks up with superstitious reverence to his ignorant priests or medicine men. Like the Digger Indian, too, he wants energy for steady industry. H e will not even catch the fish in the seas that surround him, though they swarm with them. Now, although the aboriginal Irish Celt is certainly higher than the Digger Indian, still science is asking— (2) How much higher is he ? Matthew Arnold describes the aboriginal Irish Celt as being " o u t at elbows, poor, slovenly, and half-barbarous." Probably some of the agricultural negroes in Africa are less barbarous than the aboriginal Irish Celt. Twenty years ago, in the United States, all waiters at hotels were negroes or Irish. They never were employed together in the same hotel, because they ABORIGINAL IRISH CELT. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. NEGRO. 5 ABOUT IRELAND. fought so much. Of the two the negroes were preferred. In 1847 Lord Palmerston wrote to Lord Minto as follows :—" I really believe there never has been out of the central regions of Africa such a state of crime as now exists in Ireland." Some men of science consider some of the agricultural negroes of Africa to be higher than the aboriginal Irish Celt. They look on these negroes as representing humanity in a state of childhood, developed only a short way, but still so far rightly developed by ages of comparatively easy life in a sunny climate, and with plenty of good food ; whilst they look on the aboriginal Irish Celt as being wrongly developed by ages of hard life in a gloomy climate and with bad food. It is easy to account for the aboriginal Irish Celt why the 0 living in the west where he does. c> aboriginal At one time he c?h liv,es where he inhabited the whole of Ireland. But Ireland fordoes* centuries was subject to inroads and invasions by all sorts of superior races, such as Danes, Norsemen, Saxons, Scotch mixed breeds, & c , &c. These invasions all came from the east, for no country to the west had yet been discovered. Coming from the east, the aboriginal savages were naturally driven to the west, where they settled. They were not driven further west, because the Atlantic prevented it. And the country they settled in was not taken from them, because it was not worth taking from them. Comparing the western Irish with the Tartars, Kohl, the German traveller, says, " the Tartars ofKohi. the Crimea are poor and barbarous, but they at least look like human beings." 6 W H A T SCIENCE IS SAYING T h e following is an extract from a recent newspaper :— " A landlord, who owns a block of houses nearly all let to Irish people, and not very far from the Crystal Palace, complains that the tenants are always troublesome, dirty, and destructive/' " I have been not a little surprised," says a writer from California, " a t the authority assumed by the Land League in Ireland. W e have been a good deal troubled by Irish turbulence in San Francisco, but we know how to keep them in their proper place." It may safely be said that never a week passes but some such paragraph as these two may be found in some English, American, or Colonial newspaper. Supposing in the towns of these countries there was, instead of an Irish quarter, a Malay quarter or a Carib Indian quarter, the accounts could hardly be worse. ' And yet Irishmen who emigrate are the pick of the race. They are the best and most energetic specimens. T h a t they should be so is what one would naturally expect; that it actually is so Miss Charlotte O'Brien, in the last number of the ' Nineteenth Century,' states to be a fact. So if these are the pick, what must those be who are left behind ? It can perhaps hardly be too strong an expression to say that the Irish population is the curse of all those countries which possess such populations, and that this is the cause more than any other one cause why progress towards civilisation in such countries is so slow as it is. T h e Chinese are far more peaceable and wellbehaved than the Irish, and yet the Americans are passing laws to keep them out of the country. ABOUT IRELAND. 7 Perhaps the only reason they do not pass corresponding laws about the Irish is that the Chinese having yellow skins are more recognisable. One sure indication of low type in a race is the disposition to sympathise with crime, and shield the criminal in opposition to the law. A superior race, even at its roughest, always insists on law of some sort —even Lynch law, where no better is to be had. It will not be necessary to remind the reader where the sympathies of the aboriginal Irish Celt lie. Another sign of a low type is incapacity for Incapacity continuous labour. " T h e constitutional energy," tin"°us O' J says Herbert Spencer, " necessary for continuous labour, without which there cannot be civilised life, is an energy that can only be acquired by inherited modifications slowly accumulated." Again he says, " in the lower types of men there is a physical incapacity for continuous labour." Taking all these things into consideration, science is asking— (3) Can the nature, the skin, and the prognathous* features of negroes be altered ? (4) Can the nature and the prognathous features of the aboriginal Celt be altered ? (5) If these changes are possible, can they be made under hundreds or even thousands of years ? (6) Is it wise to legislate in such a manner as to ensure for all time an endlessly and an infinitely * As this word is to a certain degree a scientific one, some of the political gentlemen engaged in trade in provincial districts will not perhaps understand the meaning of it; so it may not be amiss to explain that prognathous means forwardness of position or large size of jaws and of the lower part of the face, as compared with smallness of brain and backward position of the head above. energy. 8 Herbert Spencer's X n ut n savages. Sir Samuel Baker. WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING increasing population, close to our shores, of these degraded and (according to anthropology and the scientific doctrine of heredity) almost if not quite hopelessly irreclaimable people ? Mr. Herbert Spencer says that the more barbarous men are * e s s f^ ^ e y a r e f° r free institutions, an(j ^ m o r e fa^y r e quire, in order to repress vice and crime, a despotic form of government, and to be ruled with a strong hand. Sir Samuel Baker . ^ e ** describes passing in Africa from tribes which were ungoverned, and were in consequence in the lowest state of degradation, to the Unyoro country which was governed by an unflinching despot, who inflicted death or torture for the most trivial offences, but where they had in consequence of this despotism developed administration, sub-governors, taxes, good clothing, arts, agriculture, and architecture. Social life, says H . Spencer, means co-operative life. And the commencement of co-operative life or civilisation amongst low types "can at first only be effective where there is obedience to peremptory command." Amongst savages who are impulsive in conduct and with feeble powers of co - operation, says H . Spencer again, only small societies, at first under some local chief, can become integrated. History shows that the aboriginal Irish Celt gives in at once when coerced with a strong hand. Men of a low type of organisation will excite themselves, like a Malay running a muck, for a time, but they are cowardly, and have no backbone. They have no steady, persevering energy either for good or ill. If ruled with a strong hand, and crime at once put down wherever it appears, they will remain fairly t ABOUT IRELAND. 9 peaceable, and sometimes even prosperous so long as the firm hand is on them. At Harlington, near Accrington, four Irishmen were committed for trial, in the beginning of January, for suddenly attacking some people in a public-house, without any provocation, and stabbing them right and left. Now, this is the Malay running a muck over again. But try either the Malay savage or any one of such Irish savages in his unexcited moments, and he is found to be an abject coward. Wearing some rags and being able to read and write cannot alter the nature of a prognathous wild man in the smallest degree. In one respect some negro tribes are superior to savages ° # require a the Irish, inasmuch as they know that it is good fordespotthem to be coerced. " T h e Damara negroes," says Mr. Dal ton, " court slavery, and follow a master as spaniels would." One negro said to his master, "You're a pretty fellow to be a master. I've been with you three years, and you've never beaten me yet. " Happy is he," says T . Carlyle, "who has a good servant; but happier still is he who has a good master." T h e lower the type the truer this is. T h e only chance for a savage to behave well and improve is by his being ruled well and strongly. As society and human character develop, men can be ruled by other masters, such as law, public opinion, conscience, noble passions and desires, &c. Taking these things into consideration, science is asking— (7) If we possessed an island off the coast of England inhabited by negroes, would those wellmeaning political gentlemen engaged in trade in pro- IO WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING vincial towns, who are supposed to form an influential part of the present Government, consider that these negroes ought to have the same political institutions as England, and be governed in the same way ? (8) If the Home Rulers were to get their way and separate Ireland from England, would not the more civilised part of the community have, sooner or later, to rule the aborigines of the West and South with a strong hand ? (9) How is it that when Ireland wanted a soldier to manage her, we only sent her a Quaker ? Mr. Forster. Mr. Forster is an excellent and able man. Still he is a Quaker by parentage. Quakerism is dying out because railroads and intercommunication destroy that isolation which renders Quaker narrow-mindedness (Philistinism Matthew Arnold calls it) and Quaker quietism possible. Still, men of science who study the doctrine of heredity, tell us that such characteristics as these, ingrained by centuries of petty and mere local surroundings, cannot be got rid of in one, two, or three generations, and that till they are got rid of the mind remains too contracted for the successful conduct of matters in the great world of national Philistinism, politics. Philistinism is rather an affected though expressive word Mr. Arnold has imported from Germany, and means the narrow-mindedness of halfeducated people who are enemies " t o the chosen people," that is to say to " the children of light"— in other words, to broad-minded, wise men who are without bias, prejudices, or bigotry, and whose tone of mind is the tone of the great world instead of the tone of only provincial and insular industrialism. This Philistinism, or narrowness of mind and of ABOUT IRELAND. II sympathies, comes from various causes, such as ignorance of history, ignorance of science, and ignorance of human nature, from class prejudices, one-sided pursuits, provincial isolation, sectarian hatreds, & c , &c. Still Mr. Forster, being a liberal, open-minded man, is learning. Stern facts about the turbulence that is in human nature are educating him. T h e isolated lives of smug, well-to-do tradespeople in country towns (whether large towns or small ones), quietly and regularly, for generation after generation, getting their morning newspaper and buttered toast at 9 A.M., who know little or nothing of the great world, and who have no experience of the turbulence that is in human nature, beyond the occasional impertinence of a clerk or an apprentice, who soon becomes amenable to discipline again with little or no coercion,—these lives must end in establishing a variety of mankind like what Mr. Arnold calls " the British Philistine," full of hereditary narrowness, though amongst them will sometimes be found men of great natural talents of certain kinds. With regard to Ireland, the ignorances of halfeducated people have been lately very strikingly displayed. For instance, surprise has been expressed by many at the Irishmen mutilating and torturing Mutilation sheep, cattle, and horses. But a very little knowledge of history would have taught them that these practices have always been more or less common in Ireland, even in peaceable times, and that mention is made of them in histories hundreds of years ago. Again, a very little knowledge of science and of human nature would have taught them that halfbarbarous people of the very low Celtic type are certain to do such things at times. 12 J. Stuart Mill. WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING Our present Government, when accused of not at once putting down the Irish savagery of the autumn with a strong hand, helplessly tells us that they wanted to see whether ordinary law would not do. But the whole history of Ireland for hundreds of years shows (what to scientific knowledge of low types of mankind does not want showing) that ordinary law is and must be powerless and juries useless, and that for such people despotism (of course as benevolent as possible) is the only effectual government. This stupid ignorance led to the positive encouragement of crime. " Those magistrates" (was a celebrated saying of Cato the elder) " who can but do not prevent crime encourage it." John Stuart Mill has much to answer for in the J matter of our ignorant modes of governing savage and barbarous races of men. For he was the fashionable political philosopher of his day, and yet he never could understand the doctrine of heredity, which teaches, amongst other things, the almost impossibility of altering the nature and character of savage and barbarous people, and that animal character is always observed to accompany an animal and strongly prognathous cast of features. J. S. Mill thought that the mind of every human being, savage or civilised, was alike at birth—that is to say, that it was a blank sheet of paper ready to be written on by education and circumstances, so that if these were the same the resulting characters would be the same. It need hardly be said that modern science has wiped all such ideas of the oldfashioned utilitarian school completely out of the minds of educated people of the younger generation. ABOUT IRELAND. 13 It seems impossible to make the political gentlemen engaged in trade in provincial localities understand the truth that there is infinitely more difference between a savage and an Isaac Newton, a Heine or a St. Paul, than there is between a jelly-fish and the said savage; an ounce of spiritual difference outweighing a hundredweight of mere organic difference ; and thus it comes to pass that they believe that all that is necessary to turn the savage into a fully developed and well-behaved Christian man is to give him a vote and rescue him from any ruler he may happen to have over him. Oliver Cromwell has always been the great hero oiiver of the democratic school of politicians. Cromwell's measures, when the aboriginal Celt was in the lawless condition that seems natural to him when not restrained by a strong hand, were coercive to a very great degree, even for those days when barbarous people of a low type were looked on as little better than noxious animals. In an old journal that has lately been published, written by a Mr. Blundell, who lived some hundreds of years ago, we read of 200 native Irish taking refuge in trees and being shot down like rooks ; also of a clergyman going out one morning, killing fifty of them, and then returning to breakfast. American treatment of the aboriginal red men has, even in more modern times, sometimes not been very different. Considering, then, that (whatever opinions may be formed of Cromwell's essential character) he has always been held up by everybody, but especially by the democratic school, as perhaps the greatest governor of men that ever lived, science is asking—• 14 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING (10) Is it not just possible that, although milder modern manners of course demand milder modes of treatment, Oliver Cromwell may have been right in his principle, that the lower races of men want governing with a firm, strong hand, and that they are not fit for free institutions ? ( n ) As it appears from statistics (compiled by Mr. Leadam) that within the last fifty years fortynine exceptional measures of a coercive kind have had to be resorted to in Ireland, does not this fact tend to show the same thing ? It is said that all that is wanted in Ireland is for grievances to be redressed; then she will be peaceful and happy; but sociological science is asking— (12) Will any amount of redressing satisfy a halfbarbarous race of men, who are not advanced enough, and probably can never be advanced enough, to understand the laws of nature ? Even if the whole of Ireland were divided into potato-patches innumerable, would not grievances very soon become correspondingly innumerable ? Would not population increase beyond all possibility of food for them ? Would not the mass of paupers that would assuredly swarm over the country consider it an intolerable grievance and injustice for one man to have a potato patch whilst another man had none ? And would not the last state of the wretched country be then immeasurably worse than the first ? Some politicians harp unceasingly upon unjust laws, unhappy circumstances, &c. & c , when the real thing that wants remedying is the moral character of a degraded race of men. Everything in this world depends on human character, as (to give an instance) is just now being shown in the case of the British ABOUT IRELAND. 15 and American farmers, the former always complaining of adverse circumstances, when the real thing that is cutting them out is, as Mr. Clare Read says, character; that is to say, the extraordinary energy, hard work, intelligence, education, ingenuity, and temperance of the American farmers. Character is everything; and how a race of men ought to be governed depends entirely on the character of that race. And yet what do most legislators know about the different characters of different races ? Just nothing. It perhaps is not to be won- Legislators dered at that accurate knowledge of human cha- human 0 racter, of anthropological science, or of the history of races, is not very general amongst the makers of our laws, when we consider who and what these makers of laws are. First, then, there are a considerable number of what are called the higher classes—that is to say, the aristocratic class. Lord Beaconsfield somewhere describes the English aristocracy as people with healthy organisations, who live in the open air and never read books. Now, a healthy organisation is a very good thing, and an open-air life is a very good thing; but surely even a little knowledge is a very good thing too, in spite of the proverbial saying about the danger of it. It is true that this class mixes in the world a good deal, and that this, besides tending to produce a certain large-minded tolerance and good-nature, leads in some cases to considerable general knowledge. A French saying says, " Les gens de qualite savent tout sans rien apprendre." But this, like most sayings, contains only a moderate quantity of truth. Besides the aristocratic class, there are amongst our law-makers many professional men. T h e knowledge possessed by these is, of course, apt nature. i6 Voltaire. WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING to be merely professional, besides which professional men are subject to professional narrownesses. A large proportion of our law-makers consist of people engaged in trade. These, it need hardly be said, are very heavily handicapped by that very fact. In the first place, they rarely have had what is called a liberal education, and few of them have had time to acquire much knowledge beyond what is necessary for their several businesses. Besides which their peculiar modes of life, often with sectarian habits of thought, lead to narrownesses which are increased in some cases twenty-fold by being inherited through several generations. These modes of life often lead also to sad intolerance and bitterness towards everybody who is different from themselves. Indeed, human nature in its more vulgar forms before it has reached the charity and (what Mr. M. Arnold calls) the " sweet reasonableness of the highly developed Christian man," generally hates the different, just as is observed in the animal world. Put an ant of one tribe on to an ant-hill of another, and it is immediately torn to pieces. T h e hatred of the man who makes his money by cotton, wool, or iron towards the man who makes his money by land, is the same thing as all those hatreds that are so common amongst narrow-minded, uncultured, or half-cultured people for what is different, and solely because it is different. In Voltaire's time a foreigner could not walk the streets of London without being hooted at even by what were called respectable people. Voltaire had plenty of wits, and always carried them about him, so when he was hooted at and pelted in London he jumped upon a doorstep, harangued his persecutors upon the ABOUT IRELAND. 17 greatness of England, turned the tables, and was escorted home in triumph. Liberality of mind and tolerance are almost the last things that come to men in the evolution from barbarism to civilisation. Gentlemen engaged in trade in the provincial Nothing like districts are too often like the immortal Athenian tanner, who said there was nothing like leather for making statues of, and who had in fact eyes for nothing else in the universe but leather. So it is with the mere industrialist. H e can see no good in the world but in industrialism. H e is as narrowminded as the Athenian tanner. Neither can these people believe in the possibility of the reign of mere industrialism ever being interrupted. But they are wrong—wrong as poor Richard Richard Cobden was when he believed in all simplicity and sincerity, thirty years ago, that war amongst civilised nations was only a thing of the past. W a r will never only be a thing of the past so long as this planet is inhabited. A s surely as any country becomes emasculated by exclusive devotion to only one form of activity, such as mere industrialism, so surely will she become the prey, sooner or later, of some more manly race. Natural advantages of position, such as the proverbial " silver streak," may put off the evil day for one, two, or three hundred years—and what is a few hundred years in the world's history ? But the end must come. T h e law of survival of the fittest must hold good. Ants in an ant-hill lay up goods and grow richer and richer, and think of nothing but riches. A t length, when this deteriorating process has gone on a certain time, some more vigorous tribe of ants wages war upon c i8 National hed?on° y WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING these effeminate industrials, which war ends in the destruction of great numbers, and the enslavement of the rest. T h e fundamental idea that rules modern science is " t h e unity of nature." A principle in one stage of evolution is a principle in all. Modifications take place, but the principle remains. Human life on this earth means struggle, struggle, struggle, for ever and ever, deterioration of race beginning immediately the struggle slackens; and then comes after a time the substitution of some more fit race. T o realise this in history requires the eye to be cast over many ages of the world. But the smug provincial industrialist, looking only at his own little surroundings in his own little neighbourhood and in his own little era, and getting his buttered toast every morning without fail, sees none of these vigorous processes of nature, and thinks the age of eternal money-making in peace and quietness has arrived. In " the struggle for existence," says Herbert Spencer, " among societies, the survival of the fittest is the survival of those in whom military co-operation is the greatest." National life is a polyhedron with many facets or sides. But our smug friend above mentioned, whose idea of heaven is an eternity of buying cheap and selling dear, thinks national life has only the one side to it of industrialism, that one being really far from the best side, though it may be the most necessary one. Digestion is the most necessary function of the body, for without digesting a man dies at once, but there are infinitely higher functions than digesting. ABOUT IRELAND. 19 If it had not been for our colonies, which have to a certain degree kept us up to fighting mark, the fate of the efFeminated ants might perhaps, in spite of the " silver streak," have already been ours, and England might have become the prey to some people fitter than mere industrialists to survive on this planet. How we should have behaved to the invaders it is impossible to say, but I suppose we should have told them that we doubted not they had grievances caused by our injustice—that their unsettled condition indeed proved the existence of these just causes of complaint, and that we were only too anxious to redress the grievances and conciliate them in any way they liked. But whilst the talking was going on the invasion would have been going on too, and we should have been helpless to prevent it as a flock of sheep, or as a nation of mere industrialists must be. From this fate England has perhaps been saved hitherto by her soldier-requiring colonies. Field sports also, and especially the national pastime of fox-hunting, will also have done something to keep up that important part of a nation's life, vigorous manliness of mind and body. There is a strange idea amongst some halfeducated politicians that disorder and discontent amongst a people prove injustice in the way they are governed. But in the first place, people of a low type are always disorderly and lawless; and in the second place, communistic people like the Irish must be discontented, the definition of a communist being " a man (idle or with idle forefathers) who is discontented because other people (industrious or with industrious forefathers) are richer than he is." c 2 20 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING Wrap it up in fine language as one may, this is the real definition of a communist. a ht hf animfi " Man, says science, has inhabited this earth millions of years, and during all this time has been essentially a fighting animal. At length in these latter days insular in- comes a set of insular industrialists, who, having dustnahsm. Hurricanes, War. • ° nothing in their blood but centuries of hereditary buying and selling, jump up on to their counters and cry out " Oh dear me, what a dreadful thing fighting is! It kills so many people ; and wounds hurt so much; and blood is so shocking to s e e ; besides which, if people spend all their money on fighting they will have none left to buy my goods with, & c , &c." Of course, war means much pitiable suffering. So do hurricanes. Winds and hurricanes have destroyed millions. But no winds at all, by rendering air pestilential, would destroy millions of millions. In the same way wars have destroyed millions, but no wars at all would have prevented all the progress that comes from survival of the fittest, and the earth would be peopled by some miserably degraded anthropoid creature that happened to be the most prolific. W e must take our planet with its inhabitants, fightings, earthquakes, hurricanes, and all, as it is, not as Mercury or Venus is. T h e idea so common amongst well-meaning tradespeople who get their buttered toast every morning without fail, as their fathers did before them, that wars will cease, must come from ignorance of history, of science, and of human nature, added to that want of imagination so common amongst half-educated people, which deprives them ABOUT IRELAND. 21 of the power to conceive anything they are not accustomed to. W e must go by history and science, for we have nothing else to go by, and history has as yet shown no signs of wars ceasing. Still the future may be different from the past. Anything may happen. All mankind may become Quaker quietists. Or they may become dancing or howling dervishes, and so work off those passions and energies they have hitherto spent in fighting; and the more civilised men become the more energies they have to work off, and the more passions, desires, and interests they have to fight about. A savage is a poor intermittent creature with no steady-going, persevering, permanently and con* tinuously working passions, interests, objects, and desires at all. Taking broad views, history shows war to be the natural state of man, what is called peace being but exhaustion from war and the laying up of new populations and new means for fresh wars ; these peaceful intervals sometimes extending over considerable periods of time. W h a t the future may be is guesswork for people whose minds are not very strong. Men with strong minds go by facts and experience. Any such extraordinary change in mankind and in the laws of nature (as they have been hitherto observed to be) as perpetual peace between nations would mean, would require the experience of many hundreds of years to prove, for the experience to the contrary extends from thousands, or, according to men of science, millions of years ago up to the present time. A few years ago the American United States 22 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING quarrelled with Spain about Cuba, and war was nearly being declared. If it had been declared, General Grant's plan was to send an army of 60,000 men across the Atlantic to Spain, and take Madrid ; and he would have done it, too, if he had chosen to do it. If we adopt the narrow and insular ignorances of our anti-war and anti-colony tradespeople, and become a helpless nation of mere effeminate industrial ants, this must some day be the fate of Great Britain, though of course not of Ireland, for no country would have her. Our colonies require, and will always require, unceasing protection from savages and neighbours who, according to what has hitherto been observed to be the law of nature, must fight, and therefore must be fought. This being so, some ten millions more or less ought to be reckoned in the estimates every year for actual active warfare. If this is done, we may, besides defending the colonies, keep ourselves up to efficient fighting mark, and (helped by our insular position) defy invasion. It may be asked what has all this to do with Ireland ? A great deal. For it shows the ignorance of those mercantile and commercial politicians who, from want of a liberal education, of large intercourse with all kinds and classes of men, and consequently of power to imagine anything beyond their own little personal, insular, or parochial experiences, think that all that is wanted for putting down the turbulence of savage peoples is to tinker up a few laws, sprinkle a little rose-water about, and tell them to be good. It also shows by history that God's way of dealing with such savage peoples has always been for them to be supplanted by or rendered subject to superior ones ABOUT IRELAND. 23 who are more fit to survive, and that any one who quarrels with this system of nature quarrels with the stern but undoubted laws of God, which ordain that the weak and the vicious must make way for the strong and virtuous, and that deterioration of the human race must be the consequence of these laws not being carried out. It also teaches the weakkneed and mere sentimental religionist who may be shocked at all this, that Christianity is not the flabby thing he supposes it to be, but that it is a strong, manly, militant region, whose business it is to fight an unceasing fight with all that is ignoble, unmanly, low, degraded, vicious, and foolish. Christianity, as the author of * Ecce H o m o ' truly says, is not the emasculate sentimental thing it is sometimes represented to be. Selfish hatred is indeed charmed away, but only because still more fiery passions take its place, such as intolerant anger against all wrongdoing, passion for or hunger and thirst after righteousness (called when established by habit " duty"), strong vital Christian passions of pity, hope, faith, joy, & c , &c. Centuries of mere industrialism in the blood will render even the most able men helpless when they have to do with the turbulence that is in that most turbulent and fighting of all animals, Man. Witness the last few months in Ireland. Messrs. Bright and Messrs. i i » i l l * r Bright and Chamberlain, whose blood is made up of centuries £jlnamber" of ancestral industrialism, went down for two or three months before the old, old, Irish turbulence, helpless and paralyzed. And it must have been so. Pure savagery and turbulence is incomprehensible to long-inherited industrialism. Mr. Bright has much Hebrew blood in him, as 24 Hebrew WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING perhaps may have also, to judge by some of his characteristics, Mr. Chamberlain. No one admires the Hebrew race, or appreciates what it has done for mankind, more than the writer of these pages; but still the Jew has for ages been almost exclusively industrial in his avocations. T h e newest doctrine of science is that the greater part of human life is carried on by unconscious instincts and ideas inherited from ancestors—a kind of unconscious memory of ancestral experience. Just as bees make their cells with mathematical precision by means of ideas and instincts inherited and unconsciously entertained and acted on. Looked at from the physiological point of view, this heredity is stated by science to mean vibrations set going in former generations—actually the same vibrations being continued from generation to generation. Looked at from the spiritual point of view, it is stated to mean unconscious memory continuing by habit through the generations. Taking, then, all these things into consideration, science is asking— (13) Would it not be possible to enact that no one should take his seat in either House of Parliament till he has passed a tolerably stringent examination in history as also in science, sociological, ethnological, and anthropological, thus ensuring some knowledge of human nature in all the various races ? Of course, this question science has too much science or knowledge not to answer at once in the negative, there being not the slightest chance of any such enactment being made ; for it would be like schoolboys prescribing extra work and extra examination for themselves. Still, science may excusably dream ABOUT IRELAND. 25 some day (at least in Utopia, if nowhere else) of law-makers for, and rulers of, the different races of men knowing something of the nature of the different races of men they make laws for and rule. Nearly all modern scientific ideas about living Survival of creatures are founded on the doctrine of survival of the fittest. Bees lay up provisions and provide for the future ; but some from want of energy and intelligence neglect to do so. These, being unfit to survive, nature leaves to perish. This stern justice is best for the bee tribe on the whole ; for it encourages the survival of the fittest, that is, of the most energetic, the most intelligent, and the most self-dependent ones. Amongst men, serious famines from bad seasons Famines. recur, say, about every fifty years. These bad seasons arise (as is supposed by men of science) from the sun refusing to give its usual amount of light and heat for two or three or more years in succession. Civilised peoples have, as a rule, sufficient energy and intelligence to provide against these famines. But some of the lower races, from want of these qualities, fail to do so ; and these, if left in nature's hands, do not survive, not being, in fact, fit to do so, and their place on the earth is taken by others who are more fit to survive. In this way the human race is not only prevented from deteriorating, but progress becomes possible. This being the case, science is asking— (14) Is nature right in dealing out thes.e rigorous measures ? That is to say, do her doings in this respect end in the greatest ultimate well-being to the human race as a whole, by leading to the survival of the fittest; that is, of those who are the most 26 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING intelligent, the most self-controlled, the most virtuous, the most energetic, and the most selfdependent ? Also, would contrary measures to these rigorous ones end in misery and wretchedness being multiplied infinitely, or would this not be the case ? Bm s for (l5) W h a t ought Governments to do in these effectual CaSeS ? Ought they to submit to nature's stern of paupers, modes of working, or ought they to endeavour by legislation to prop up the paupers, the idle, the drunken, the improvident, and the imbecile, and thus discourage the survival of the intelligent, the industrious, and the righteous and just-dealing part of the population ? (16) If Governments pursue this latter plan, what will be the results when future famines from bad seasons arise ? And would such legislation end, or would it not end in famines and great misery every five or ten years, instead of every fifty years ? And, if so, would not such legislation be the extreme of proiificness cruelty ? Semi-paupers, and people of a low and raels°ofer w e a k type, a r e often, unfortunately, prolific. In the mankind. State of New York, in 1874, Dr. Harris was struck by the fact that a great number of paupers and vagrants had the same name. Upon investigation, they were all traced back to a young girl called Margaret, who belonged to the thriftless and vagrant class, and who had lived the life of a tramp many years before. This girl became the mother of a race of paupers, and her progeny has cursed the country ever since. T h e county records showed two hundred of her descendants to have been criminals, and seven hundred to have been idiots, drunkards, lunatics, and paupers, the cost of whom to the country ABOUT IRELAND. 27 must have been enormous. Science, then, is asking here— (17) If the Government passes Bills to prop up paupers, and to ensure the survival of the unfittest, will each pauper thus propped up provide the country, in the course of years, with two hundred criminals and seven hundred idiots, drunkards, lunatics, and vagrants like " t h e girl called Margaret" ? (18) If the Government passes such Bills, is there the smallest possibility that they will not be laying up for some not remote future period, at least quadrupled pauperism, quadrupled crime, and quadrupled misery ?• (19) If such untold misery must be the future consequence of legislating to promote the survival of the unfittest, is it possible to conceive a degree of cruelty more fearful than it would be to bring about such legislation ? But besides the prolificness observed in many people of a low organisation, there is in Ireland another reason why population tends to become unmanageable. T h a t cause is the Roman Catholic The Irisl parish priest. This person is often well-meaning, catholic and nearly always ignorant and bigoted. H e very pnes properly, or, at any rate, naturally, endeavours to earn his living in that state of life unto which it has pleased God to call him. But this living is derived, in a considerable degree, from marriage and christening fees; and thus it comes about that, in addition to the ten commandments, he teaches his flock two more on his own account, namely, " Thou shalt marry as early in life as thou canst," and " T h o u shalt have as many children as 28 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING thou canst." These two commandments are usually obeyed, whatever may be the case with the other ten. Irish win It is absurd to expect ever to satisfy or make never be content. x J content low-type Communistic Roman Catholic Celts of the West, who breed like rabbits on religious principles. It is absurd to expect ever to satisfy them by granting their wishes. They never can be made content in this way till two and twTo make five. And the more is done to satisfy what they profess to wish for, the more discontented they must in the long run become, because the more facilities will thus be given them for over-populating a barren country. There is no possible chance of making the Western Irish even tolerably content till they have learnt that tinkering with the laws, whether political tinkering or Communistic tinkering, is over for ever. T h e more sugar-plums you give a child the more discontented it is. But negroes and the lower races, if they are firmly governed by a benevolent despot, will sometimes be very contented, and if the despot has great qualities, not only will their devotion to him during his life be often beautiful, but they will worship him after his death, as was shown in the case of the Indian soldier Nicholson, who was looked up to with extreme affection and reverence by the natives who were under him whilst alive, and was afterwards worshipped under the name of u t h e great spirit, Nik-Kol-Seyn." Henry the Seventh said that the way to govern the turbulent Irish was to send them some turbulent lord who was himself ungovernable in England. Chinese Gordon said he gave up the Secretaryship ABOUT IRELAND. 29 in India because it was too quiet work for his turbulent disposition. How about sending him to the West of Ireland ? His influence over the lower races is miraculous. Or again : How about sending some distinguished " tribune of the people," who may have shown great powers of influencing the lower stratum of society in England ? Every effective demagogue has the makings of a despot in him, and for any person of a sporting turn the salmon fishing in Ireland is excellent. T h e salary, of course, should be very good, inasmuch as the position would be a very responsible one. Virtues change with evolution—or rather, the proportion between qualities changes as reason advances. T h e lower races often possess qualities, passions, and intellectual, or semi-intellectual, faculties, some of which men share with the lower animals, in a stronger degree than do the higher races. T h e African Bosjesmans are wonderful mimics. Many African negroes, says Livingstone, are unceasingly laughing.Bosjesnn No joke is too small for them. " T h e first form of co-operation or civilisation is," says H. Spencer, " family union." " Amongst the African Bushmen,' says Lichtenstein, " sexual feeling, the instinctive love of children, and attachment among relations, are the only ties that keep them in any sort of union." "Savages," says Humboldt, "know and care for only their own family ; they know the ties of relationship, but not those of humanity." T h e gratitude and devotion of negroes is sometimes extraordinary. Livingstone told one of his devoted negro followers Livings that he could not take him with him to England. T h e negro immediately threw himself overboard and drowned himself. T h e aboriginal Irish Celt is 30 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING violently attached to his family and to the country and locality of his birth, and is therefore averse to Emigration, emigration. But his reason is not sufficiently developed (and most likely never can be) to see that an overcrowded country mtist have recourse to emigration, and that if ten people try to live on a piece of land that will only grow food for four, six must starve. Science, then, is asking— (20) Amongst the numerous nostrums for Ireland, why is it that we hear so little about emigration ? It is an axiom in the management of estates that, when a tenant gets into difficulties, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the best thing for the tenant himself"is that he should give up or be made to give up his holding before he gets further into the wood. If this is done in time he will be rescued from money lenders, and will save, at any rate, something out of the fire. Propping him up finishes his ruin. Ent v a n of Legislation has, at some times, made foolish and injurious laws of entail, which have had for their object to prop up landowners who have got into difficulties, to save their land to their families, and to prevent it from coming into the market; thus preventing, also, the survival of the fittest, and securing the non-survival of the non-fittest W h a t does it matter to the country, an impoverished landowner's precious land being saved to his family ? Indeed, that it should be saved to it is good neither for the country, for himself, nor for his family. Dr. Playfair. Dr. Playfair wrote not long ago an excellent article about the farmers of the old school in the Eastern 31 ABOUT IRELAND. States of America, who were a few years ago being ruined by the competition of the fresh wheat-fields of the Western States. In fact, they were being reduced to a state of pauperism. T h e Government made no attempt to prop up these paupers, and issued no decrees that they need not pay their debts, but leaving perfect liberty of competition, the thriftless farmers of the old school who were unfit to survive, were soon replaced by intelligent, energetic men, who were more fit to survive, the result being that, where the land was of good quality, the farms very soon produced more and paid better than they had ever done before. American governments never meddle with free contract, free competition, and survival of the fittest. Mr. Clare Read says that the American producers Mr. cure far exceed those of all other countries in energy and intelligence. Mr. Herbert Spencer says that all legislation that meddles with natural competition tends to check energy and self-dependence, and prevents the survival of the fittest ; also that meddling measures always ^work differently from the way they are intended to work, and often in the opposite way. H e gives a great many instances of this. T h e latest one that might be given is the Ballot Bill, which was passed in order to put an end to bribery., corruption, and undue influence! " Any attempt to force labour," says Adam Peasant . •/• • i i i i i Smith, ii into artificial channels, to shape by law the course of commerce, or to promote special branches of industry in particular countries is wrong to the workers and hurtful to the wealth of the State." Proprietor 32 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING Adam Smith evidently did not believe in legislation that meddles with liberty. Considering all such things as these, science is asking— (21) Ought governments ever to make laws with the object of propping up paupers, or of interfering with the natural working of the survival of the fittest persons or fittest races of men—the fittest meaning the most intelligent, the most energetic, and the most righteous and true-dealing. One of the favourite maxims of free-trade is that every country should produce those things for which it is most suited by nature. Ireland is a country with a moist mild climate, and covered a great part of the year with clouds and mists from the Atlantic. This renders it unfit for growing corn, or maize, or any of the kinds of food that are suited for any except low types of mankind. But these same Pasturage, peculiarities of climate are favourable to pasturage, and are the causes of the rich verdure which has given the country the name of " T h e Emerald Isle." Beef and mutton are foods for men of the highest type. Science says that the character of races of men i^ formed very much by external circumstances, such as climate, diet, & c , and that an inferior kind of diet can only produce people of a low type. T h e worst diet known is a kind of clay. This produces A d m n the Andaman Indians, or " Dirt Eaters." They are na a believed by some to be the lowest savages known. Considering these things, science is asking— (22) Should impediments be placed by Governments upon Ireland adopting that mode of farming for which she is perhaps more fitted by nature than any other country in the world, and would such ABOUT IRELAND. 33 legislation be quitting the principles of free-trade in order to protect certain classes of men and certain kinds of production ? (23) If the Andaman Indians lived in an island off the coast of England, which might happen to be rich in edible clay, ought we to legislate so as to perpetuate as far as possible this race of savages, or ought we to allow free competition with superior races, so that the fittest might survive ? Also, do peoples of a degraded type form so desirable a part of the population of a civilised country that they ought to be encouraged by special and exceptional legislation ? One commonplace bit of rant about Ireland is to say that hundreds of years ago the land was stolen from its original possessors, natives slaughtered, soil manured with their corpses, & c , &c. All which, of course, is quite true. Just in the same way as the same thing is true of the red men in America, and all races of a low type all over the world, who have to make way for others that are more fit to survive. At the bottom of Irish agitation lies communism communism. and craving for equality. Many people of democratic proclivities love equality and hate liberty. In this respect democratic despotism is like autocratic despotism; and hence arises the well-known affinity between these two despotisms, as shown, for instance, by the love of extreme Radicals for Russia. Liberty and equality are irreconcilable enemies. Liberty and Each destroys the other ; for where there is liberty deadly foes J ' to each equality cannot last a day, and equality can only be other gained by first killing liberty. A Government may decree that everybody is to have three cows and only three cows; but this can only be carried out by D WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING 34 making despotic laws depriving the clever, energetic man of the liberty to get for himself more than three cows. France at the revolution legislated with some semblance * of success with the view to equalise property. But this could only be done by making a despotic law depriving people of liberty to give away their property to any one they liked. No equality can be got without some despotic law that takes away some liberty. Nature knows nothing of equality. Indeed, the whole system of nature is founded (according to modern science) and depends entirely upon inequality, and upon the superior, or more fit to survive, taking the place, through liberty of competition, of the inferior or less fit to survive. This seems to be not only the law of progress, but also the sole way of preventing deterioration of race. j . s. M . m Poor, confused J. S. Mill was always complaining that there is no semblance of justice in nature; but he meant there was no semblance of equality. This, of course, is true. But justice there is. T h e industrious bee collects the honey and lives; the idle bee dies. This is justice. T h e proverb says, " Pains, gains; no pains, no gains," and this is undoubtedly the just law of nature. Meddling T h e more democratic England becomes, the more legislation. • 1• i she seems inclined to prevent, by means of meddling legislation, liberty of competition. And this is exactly * I say " semblance of success," for, according to Balzac, what success there is is only material. Spiritually, he says, it is more than a failure. " Plus," says Balzac, " nos lois tendront a une impossible egalite plus nous nous en ecarterons par les mceurs.7 Again, Balzac says, " En France ce qu'il y a de plus national est la vanite. La masse des vanites blessees y a donne soif d'e'galite.' ABOUT IRELAND. 35 what must be expected; for every one knows that the more ignorant a man is, the more inclined he is to blame the Government when anything goes wrong with him. In fact, he is always wanting to be propped up in some way and taken care of by the Government. America has hitherto been saved from this in spite of her democratic institutions, by the great majority of her population being educated and very intelligent, and by her always having worshipped liberty and self-dependent freedom of competition. T h e consequence is that she has arrived at her present astonishing degree of energy, invention, and intelligence in all matters connected with production. Some recent meddling legislation in England seems purposely designed for the destruction of self-dependent energy and the encouragement of imbecility of character, the imbecilities, of course, increasing every generation according to the great law of heredity. Considering these things, science is asking— (24) How can any country which throws impediments in the way of liberty of competition, and consequently of survival of the fittest (that is to say, of the most intelligent, the most energetic, and the most self-depending), hope to compete successfully with a country such as America, that throws no such impediments in the way of liberty, free competition, and survival of the fittest ? But this question is totally ignored. One bit of meddling legislation after another is defended or opposed for all sorts of reasons; but the one really important question is never asked, namely, must not a country which meddles with liberty of D 2 36 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING competition necessarily be swamped and beggared sooner or later by some country such as America, which does not meddle with liberty of competition ? One nostrum for Ireland is peasant proprietorship. Peasant pro- M. Ville is perhaps the greatest living authority on experimental farming in France. A t page 36 of the preface to his book, ' Artificial Manures' (translated by W . Crookes, F.R.S.), M. Ville says, " T h e great evil from which we suffer in France is excessive subdivision of land." At page 199 he s a y s : " T h e example of France is lamentable and distressing, for the average production of wheat is only 14^ bushels per acre." A t page 201 he says, " I have no hesitation in declaring the agricultural situation in France to be lamentable and threatening in the highest degree." A t page 202, quoting Lavoisier, he says, "Still the most distressing part of the picture is that with a languishing system of cultivation, such as prevails for the most part throughout France, there remains at the end of the year almost nothing for the farmer, who esteems himself happy when he is able to drag on a miserable and wretched life." Peasant-proprietor-agriculture means agriculture without capital or machinery, and answers to the readoption of cottage spinning-wheels in the place of the capital and machinery now employed in making cotton, linen, and woollen goods. In France peasantproprietor-agriculture means (of course with exceptions) bad crops, manual labour amounting to slavery for man, woman, and child, sordid surroundings, and subjection to money-lenders. Cottage spinning-wheels and peasant-proprietorship are alike suited only to an undeveloped condition of society. ABOUT IRELAND. 37 Science, then, is asking— (25) If peasant proprietorship is such a lamentable failure in sunny France, with every advantage of climate a country can have, a sober, industrious population, and only one child to a family, what chance could Ireland have with none of these advantages, with ten children to a family, and with a climate that renders the country unfit for the production of any but a very inferior kind of food—so inferior that it is only fit, as sole food, for people of a low type of organisation ? (26) Considering the uncertainty that exists as to the results of all human legislation, when it interferes with the natural working of things if left alone, and considering that human life is so complex that no one can foresee how a new meddling law will work, is it wise ever specially to legislate in favour of any fancy system, or of any fancy class of men, whether small proprietors, large proprietors, little farms, big farms, agriculture, manufacture, employers, employed, poor class, rich class, brewers, bakers, tinkers, tailors, or haberdashers ? Should not things be allowed to work in the natural manner as is done with such marvellously successful results in the United States of America, so far as production of the necessities of life goes ? Nature works her mighty and complex laws Tinkering unceasingly. Legislators tinker at these laws to the *™TS amusement of men of science, who know at any rate something about them. T h e tinkering often has no effect, and is therefore harmless. But at other times it is not harmless, for laws of nature are never repealed, and retribution for foolish meddling with them must follow in one shape or another, such as, 38 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING for instance, destruction of wealth, being out-competed by other countries that do not tinker foolishly, famines, tumults, crime, revolutions, & c , &c. In Irish discontent there is, as has been said already, a large admixture of communism, that is to say, of the old, old sempiternal longing of the idle poor man to take unto himself some of the goods of the industrious well-to-do man, and thus to bring about that compulsory equality and uniformity of conditions that, in addition to the idle and thriftless, is so dear also to the heart of many amiable and well-meaning but sometimes perhaps rather enviously minded theorists. After a time, in some cases, the idle communist without a penny becomes himself an industrious, well-to-do man, and then good-bye to his communism. a Ar mstron Davy Armstrong, Dean Ramsey tells us, was a nd - c oo." Scotchman. H e was the hottest of red-hot Radicals, and wanted to destroy everything. Davy left his home for a time, and when he returned one of his fellow communists began to talk to him as he had done in the former times. But Davy not responding, his friend found that his old fellow-grumbler had become a rank Tory. Much shocked at the discovery, he asked how it came about. " IVe a coo noo," said Davy. Herbert Herbert Spencer has written much on the analogy on evolution, there is between the evolution of living beings and the evolution of the social life of nations. In the animal world there is first the homogeneous jellyfish,—that is, a creature with no organs : no head, no heart, no liver, and in fact, no stomach at all to speak of. Gradually evolution to higher types takes place, and then separate organs make their appearance. ABOUT IRELAND. 39 Thus, progress in living beings means increasing diversity of organs and functions, and the loss of homogeneous uniformity. So it is also in a nation, says H. Spencer. An extremely savage tribe is homogeneous, like the jelly-fish. There is no diversity, there are no rulers, no magistrates, no classes. One man is exactly like another. There is complete uniformity, and complete equality,—in fact, a perfect dead-level of degradation. As society advances, differences arise, till at length we come to the innumerable varieties of conditions and of life that we see in highly developed communities. Thus, the principle is arrived at by Mr. Spencer that development and progress mean amongst other things diversity, difference, and inequality in the lives of men, as opposed to the homogeneousness, the sameness, and the equality, of the savage, the jelly-fish, and the socialist. This progress is caused, says science, by survival of the fittest in the struggle of life gradually going on generation after generation. And the more liberty of competition exists the more rapidly and completely this evolution takes place. Hitherto the love of liberty has been greater in England and America than in other countries, and so diversity is greater in England and America than in other countries. But what may be the case in future no one can tell. All despotisms, whether autocratic Democratic or democratic, tend, as has been said above, to hate autocratic despotisms liberty and to love equality—to return, that is, from g£ilLrty. what Mr. Spencer calls the highly differentiated conditions of advanced civilisation to the homogeneousness of a low order of society, corresponding to the jelly-fish in the animal world. Science, then, is asking— 4Q WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING (27) If these teachings of Mr. Spencer are true (and they are not disputed by men of science), ought the communism that is at the bottom of Irish discontent be encouraged or discouraged ? Communism, craving for equality, and the consequent hatred of liberty, are undoubted " rocks ahead." And the more democratic we get the more dangerous these rocks are likely to become. To defend liberty against this implacable foe equality, must be the part of the intelligent, the educated, and the higher classes of society, for the majority of the lowest classes are doubtless on the side of the latter. No one can foretell the future. Nothing is certain but the unforeseen. Still, however improbable it may seem, it is undoubtedly possible that upon our Radical nostrum-mongers—each of them intent upon his own little hobby in his own little arrangement of grey pulp he calls his brains, each of them intent upon his own little communistic contrivance for everybody except himself, and every class except his own—upon all these it is possible that, in what is called the irresistible march of democracy, a great communistic wave of communistic anarchy may come and carry anarchy. ... 1 1i • everything away, nostrums, hobbies, arrangements of grey pulp, and all. Then will society be reduced to its primitive elements of savagery, and civilisation will have to begin again. It may be said that nothing of the kind has ever been known in history. But nothing of the kind has ever been known in history as our present condition, so history proves nothing. Democracy in an old country; railroads, telegraphs, and rapid intercommunication of ideas; free trade, cosmopolitanism, patriotism dying out; shallow education universal; old ideas of religion and ABOUT IRELAND. 41 morality shaken ; reckless demagogues stumping the country, and politicians ready to pass any Bill whatever for a few party votes,—this is a combination of circumstances that has never been known in the world before : so, who can tell what it may lead to ? Perhaps the communistic wave, if it comes, may be successfully resisted. But this can only be by all who have any care for religion of any kind, for morality of any kind, for order of any kind, for law of any kind, for property of any kind, or for their own lives, putting aside their narrownesses, class hatreds, sectarian bitternesses, and party fanaticisms, and combining together to fight in the cause of civilisation against savagery. T h e wave may or may not come. But, as has just been said, we know nothing of advanced democracy under modern circumstances, in an old country. America proves nothing; for, in the first place, the experience of only one or two hundred years can prove nothing, and, in the second place, she has an infinite back-country as a safety-valve for all the scamps, scoundrels, and dangerous classes to betake themselves to. It is difficult for people accustomed to lead quiet lives day by day and year by year in perfect apparent security, to imagine the possibility of a general break-up of society, and yet the same thing was equally difficult in France before the great Revolution ; and nobody can tell what may be the upshot of conditions and combinations of conditions that have never been known in the world before. New circumstances must produce new consequences, and a fierce war between liberty and equality (i. e. communism) is an undoubted possibility. Then will be 42 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING put into practice the lessons taught over many years by the popular demagogues, who, however, never intended them to include themselves. It would be easy to name one man in particular, advanced in years now, whose public career has been one long monotonous curse, expressed in admirable language, of all those classes of people who are rich and who have had what is called a liberal education —of those classes, that is to say, on whom it depends to secure and uphold the liberty lovers of equality are always working tooth and nail to destroy. If these semi-communistic denunciations were to succeed in their aim, the end might be, himself, his class, and all above the very dregs and "residuum" being swept away in a general deluge. And if it came to this it would only be a new illustration of the very old and very wise Persian proverb, " Curses are like chickens, for they always come home to roost," though no doubt, in addition to this literal kind of meaning, the proverb refers to the life-long wretchedness that must be caused by a permanent state of "envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness," in which latter sense the proverb must always hold good. " Hate at last," says Medusa, in the ' Epic of Hades/— " Hate at last Left me a Fury. Ah, the load of life Which lives for hatred ! We are made to love," & c , &c. is demosSeT It is an everyday commonplace to say that the march of democracy is irresistible. But what degree of democracy ? T h e thing carried out logically to its extreme degree means the perfect equality of the lawless savage, without any government, varieties, orders, or classes at all. Is that the irresistible goal we must come to ? If so, this future, that is called ABOUT IRELAND. 43 so irresistible, is the very thing described above as being on the cards. People pooh-pooh communism, and undoubtedly Communism. fears of it can easily be exaggerated. Still, it is met with everywhere in some form. Hardly a (so-called) liberal newspaper can be taken up without finding it. T h e writer of these pages has before him at this moment some rather ingenious verses printed in the * Spectator ' of January 15, entitled " T h e Lay-Landlords," and which mean simply communism—that is, the destruction of property, and therefore the destruction of those classes who have leisure and means to acquire education and culture ; in other words, the disintegration of civilised society and return to its primitive elements. And is it possible that the highly educated editor of a respectable newspaper like the ' Spectator/ written by highly educated men, really wants himself, his staff, and all educated people in the country to be swept away to make room for the lowest, the most ignorant, and the most brutish classes, and nobody else ? It is impossible. And yet what alternative is there, except that all the writing of this kind is dishonest, printed only for party purposes, and never intended to be acted on ? Perhaps it is so. Still, it is said to be dangerous playing with edge-tools, even though nothing but play is intended. Peter, the lay-brother in the Ingoldsby legend of St. Dunstan, feeling thirsty, invoked by means of cabalistic words a flagon of ale. T h e flagon came. T h e n a hogshead came. Then a tun. Peter could not stop the ale; and then he found that "the devil 'tis easier to raise than to lay? Peter, in despair, shouted out " Abracadabra," but it was no use at all. T h e ale poured in harder than ever. Peter was up to his knees. H e was up to his neck. H e shrieked 44 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING for help ; and then at last the monks came headed by the holy St. Dunstan himself, who at once cried out, " V a d e retro strong beerum ! discede a layfratre Petro." But it was too late. Lay-brother Peter " To the bottom had sunk, And was spied by a monk Stone-dead." But perhaps the editor of the ' Spectator' newspaper thinks the deluge that sweeps away property will stop when it gets to the feet of the editor of the ' Spectator' newspaper. One can imagine the gentleman addressing the rising water like King Canute, and saying, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. T h e line must be drawn somewhere. I am that line. Not that all editors of newspapers need be spared. Certainly not. Go to the editor of the ' St. James's Gazette/ Go to the editor of the ' Daily Telegraph/ Go to the editors of nearly all the leading London newspapers. Sweep them all away. They are but organs of a bloated aristocracy. But stop at the door of my office. Let not one drop of water cross that threshold; for wisdom dwells with me and with my people, and with me and with my people alone. Besides, I am making a very good thing of the editorship." It is to be feared that the waves will pay no more attention to the words of the editor of the ' Spectator' newspaper than they paid to the words of King Canute. Pooh-pooh communism as people may, we have it in the midst of us in very unpleasant forms. T h e Fenians who blow up barracks and set fire to public buildings in England are simply communists like those who destroyed half Paris, and they would destroy London if they could. Democratic ideas and feelings come from many ABOUT IRELAND. 45 causes. Sometimes they depend very much on social feelings; for these are the stronger of the two, inasmuch as they are more personal. Some self-made man is a Conservative. Some day some silly fine lady snubs him for being plebeian, upon which he then and there becomes an enlightened communistic democrat, and remains a shining light for the rest of his life. It is the part of individual Christian men to miti- christian charity. gate, as far as in them lies, the sufferings of miserable people, whether the misery comes from their own folly, drunkenness, and idleness, or not. Christian charity is the business of every individual person ; but sometimes Governments try to be charitable wholesale. T h e most effectual form of charity is to improve the character of the recipient of it. But what can Governments do here ? T h e author of ' Ecce H o m o ' s a y s , " t h e r e exists Author o f no instrument for turning a bad man into a good one Homl' except personal influence." T h e influence for good of a noble Christian character over an ignoble one is sometimes miraculous. But what influence can Government exercise upon a poor wretch ? Simply the influence of Policeman X . ; in other words, absolutely none. There is occasionally manifested by some few men, inspired by noble Christian passions of pity, faith, hope, and charity, a never-tiring devotedness that mankind have agreed can only be described by such words as " divine'' and " Godly," and that works wonders. But what can a Government do ? Well, to repeat what has just been said, it can send Policeman X. Science then asks here— (28) Is charity the business of Governments ? 46 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING (29) Must not Government charity to miserable, thriftless, idle, or drunken people necessarily end in the long run in a tenfold multiplication of thriftless, idle, and drunken people, and intended charity thus become the extreme of cruelty ? (30) Does not Government charity to some always mean Government injustice and hardship to others ? (31) Does not the greatest good in the long run come from Government attending solely to justice, and allowing vice, improvidence, helplessness, drunkenness, idleness, and imbecility, to make way for virtue, foresight, self-dependence, sobriety, energy, and intelligence ? (32) Is it not a great law of nature that he that hath to him shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath ? and does not this old and (to most) familiar saying mean very much what is now expressed by " survival of the fittest ? " Pameiiism. All the forms of Parnellism in Ireland of course mean injustice to one side. No legislation at all would doubtless mean injustice to the other side in those cases where tenants have made improvements and then are refused compensation. Science then asks— (33) Are constitutional forms of government like ours unable in such a simple matter to secure justice to both sides, or are they fit for nothing but the sentimental meddling of a maudlin sort of pseudohumanity ? Giving a beggar sixpence means paying a beggar sixpence to beg. It means giving a man money for being idle. Promiscuous charity and outdoor relief are generally condemned, as the best means yet 47 ABOUT IRELAND. discovered for encouraging pauperism, idleness, and drunkenness. Science then is asking— (34) Is not " t h e three F's " (according to some The three interpretations of the expression) one of the most gigantic systems of promiscuous charity and outdoor relief that ever entered into the heart of man to conceive ? And if so, what amount of pauperism and misery must sooner or later be the consequence of enacting them amongst such a people as the aboriginal Irish Celt, who marries at twenty and will live in a pig-sty ? An improving landlord finding one day a pig in his tenant's cabin, built him a pig-sty. Visiting him six months afterwards he found the pig still in the cabin. Upon inquiry, he discoverd that since his last visit one of the sons had married, and his father had set him up with his newly married wife in the new pig- Nw married e 1 / % i. o C 0 U pi e s e t . sty. Such are the ineradicable habits of people of jjgsjpin a a low and barbarous type. Men are led to act right, and saved from doing wrong by the noble or unselfish passions and desires either acting directly or through habit. In legislation the special passion that has hitherto in the history of the world led to beneficial laws being made has been patriotism. But a time in some Patriotism. countries seems to come when free trade is considered to be the right thing (whether rightly or wrongly so considered is not here the question). But sociological science says that free trade carried out means cosmopolitanism and the destruction of patriotism ; and certainly instances have been known of eminent advocates of free trade publicly showing that they look not only with indifference, but with complacency 48 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING and satisfaction at the prospect of their own country being excelled in every respect by some other country; some distinguished free-traders, indeed, never losing an opportunity of glorifying some such other country at the expense of their own. Destroy patriotism and the words traitor and treason cease to be opprobrious terms, and to call a man a traitor becomes a mere statement, conveying no more reproach than calling him a musician or a cricketer. Sociological science says that free trade must mean in the end cosmopolitanism, citizenship of the world, instead of only one country, and thence the destruction of patriotism. An Englishman without patriotism will just as soon lay out his money in another country as in his own. An Englishman without patriotism will just as soon fight against his own country as for her. An Englishman without patriotism will never do anything for the good of his country intentionally. An Englishman without patriotism will do nothing towards defending his country in case of invasion. Thus, though free trade in itself brings money to the country that adopts it, it might be an interesting arithmetical problem to find out whether such country will in the long run gain more pecuniarily by free trade than she will lose pecuniarily by the destruction of patriotism. Of course, if all other countries adopt free trade, thus destroying patriotism, and if they also renounce war for ever, England may gain as much from unpatriotic foreigners as she loses by her own unpatriotic people; but history and reason give no grounds to think that other countries ever will adopt free trade, renounce patriotism, or fight at all less than they 49 ABOUT IRELAND. always have done. England, from her insular position, is safe from war for a time, but for how long a time ? Perhaps it is only an island that can afford to adopt free trade, to lose patriotism, and to renounce fighting, even for a time. If any other country were to attempt such things it would probably be at once eaten up by some other country— if, that is, it were worth eating up. Sometimes, even when worth it, these eatings up are put off for indefinite periods (say, two or three hundred years), as in such cases as Constantinople, Belgium, &c, by jealousies between great nations, or considerations about the balance of power. But the end comes sooner or later. Whether any country can last long after all patriotism is stone-dead has yet to be proved. Americans are passionately patriotic; so it may be considered as certain as anything in the future can be that they will never adopt free trade. No doubt, they dearly love the dollar-making part of national life, but they love their country as a whole even still more, and would be always willing to make great sacrifices in mere dollars to increase her greatness as a self-dependent, all-producing, and all-sided nation. It may be asked, what has all this talk about patriotism to do with Ireland ? It has this to do. It helps to explain the conduct of some politicians with regard to Ireland. For where patriotism (nearly man's noblest passion) is destroyed, and thus the word treason has lost its meaning, no motive for conduct will be left but personal or class ones, such as that hatred of landowners so common amongst poor, narrow-minded people whose blood is made E WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING 5° Hope for Ireland. up of generations of mere mercantile and commercial habits. In the matter of Ireland, T h e citizen of the world and cosmopolitan freetrader, without patriotism, to whom the word treason has no meaning, cannot care two straws whether his country is disintegrated or not. Considering all these things, sociological science is asking— (35) How are governments to be carried on, and countries to be managed, if all the old motives for governing well are not only destroyed, but motives for governing ill take their place ? (36) When the noble and unselfish passion of patriotism is destroyed in some distinguished statesman, what guarantee will there be that he will endeavour to legislate for the good of his country, and not really all the time be doing all he can for the injury of his own country, and for the advantage of some other one that may happen to be the object of his passionate admiration ? T a k e away the noble passions, and what motives for action can remain but ignoble ones ? Thus when patriotism is gone from a man, what is to prevent its place being taken by the personal feelings, the narrow jealousies, the class hatreds, and the sectarian malignity so common amongst half-educated m e n ; and if circumstances permit, what will there be to prevent in such a man unpatriotic endeavours to injure or destroy his own native country in order to gratify these feelings of bitterness and hatred ? Finally, science is asking the following question— (37) Is there any possible hope for Ireland, / \ T» • / \ T • except from (1) Patience, (2) Justice to all classes ABOUT IRELAND. 51 equally, (3) Education, (4) Elimination of paupers and the worst specimens of the race by unbending execution of the law, (5) Complete freedom of contract and rigid adherence to those contracts when made, (6) Ruling the aboriginal Celt of the West with a strong firm hand as it is found to be without exception necessary with the lower and barbarous races of mankind. (7) Removing all impediments to the form of agriculture most suited to the soil and climate of Ireland, whatever that may be, whether grass, arable, mixture of both, large farms or little farms ; carefully avoiding legislation that may in any way favour dependence upon a root that can only produce a race of men in type on a par with or perhaps even lower than the negro. (8) Removing all impediments to emigration, as much as it is possible to do so. (9) Doing anything that is possible to facilitate intercourse with those civilised parts of the world which are inhabited by races superior to the aboriginal Irish Celt. Isolation from the civilised part of the world, and in a storm-tossed island difficult of access in the Atlantic, being one great cause of Irish barbarism. (10) Establishing an uncostly mode of arbitration for settling justly any dispute between landlord and tenant about improvements made by the latter, or dilapidations claimed by the former. (11) Disfranchising those localities in Ireland where the people have shown themselves so disorderly, lawless, and barbarous as to be as unfit for a representative form of government as many negro tribes,* * Prince Albert said wisely that representative government was on its trial. The trial has been made in Ireland, and has hitherto completely failed. If the communistic deluge so often prophesied overwhelms England, it will have failed in England too. E 2 52 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING (12) Making life and property so secure in Ireland, even by the most despotic modes of governing if nothing else will do it, that capital will go to the country instead of leaving it, as it is doing, and must necessarily have been doing, during the recent selling land, non-government. (13) Making it as easy to sell land as to sell a horse, thus removing all impediments to liberty and to the free development of peasant proprietary, large proprietary, Anglo-Saxon proprietary, Aboriginal-Celt proprietary, AmericanIrish proprietary, American - Digger - Indian proprietary, or any proprietary whatever that the natural unrestricted working of economic forces may bring about, and thus prove to be the fittest kind of proprietary to survive under the circumstances. In these ways, asks science, and by unflinching submission to nature's (or perhaps it would be better to say God's) great law of survival of the fittest, that is, the replacement of the idle, the thriftless, the drunken, the imbecile, and the disorderly, by the active, the careful, the sober, the intelligent, and the orderly—also by the careful prevention of any impediment being placed in the way of this great law being carried out by means of perfect freedom of competition ; is it not just possible that slowly, in the course of many years, a better type of mankind may be gradually developed, and that the aboriginal Irish Celt may some time or other cease to be the terrible curse to England he hitherto always has been ? Finally science is asking— (38) Do not the present evils of Western Ireland, that is to say, does not its over-population by a people of a very low order of organisation, come ABOUT IRELAND. 53 from the above mode of treatment not having been steadily carried out in past time ? One more thing science wants to know— (39) W h y is it that such questions as these thirty-nine are never asked in the political world ? Is it that questions that lie below the surface of the surface do not come within the range of practical politics ? A word about the education suggested above. It Education. should be compulsory and rigorously carried out regardless of priests, bigotry, and the Irish vote —not mere reading and writing, but education of the character—regularity of conduct, perseverance^ decently tidy habits, in short, the ways of the civilised races. This might in the course of generations make some impression upon the type. There is no more certain sign of a low type than merely intermittent impulses and incapacity for steady energy. W e are told that in Asia Minor the lowtype Arab population are so incapable of even understanding the possibility of regular steady energy and persevering work, that they cannot believe that the great buildings, the remains of which are found buried in sand, could have been built by human hands. They attribute their origin to supernatural agency. Here is the account given by Mr. Terence M'Grath of the Irish small farmer's daily ways :—• " H e rises at nine o'clock, lounges idly all day round his reeking cabin, leaving his wife to dig the half-tilled and ill-grown potatoes for dinner; after which he visits his neighbours' houses, playing cards, or listening to exciting stories in his native tongue, on the approach of England's downfall and Ireland's 54 Djsfranchisement. WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING freedom, until night, when he flings himself, with his wife and family, men, women, and children, into a common bed." Real " education," says Ruskin, " m e a n s teaching children to be clean, active, honest, and useful." T h e reason reading, writing, and ciphering should also be taught, is because a man who has learnt these things is more useful than a man who has not learnt them, but in themselves they can hardly be called education. A word about the disfranchisement suggested £>o above. At the present moment, in consequence of obstruction, and therefore the (so far) failure of representative institutions, the English House of Commons is the laughing-stock of the civilised world. This being so, any member who is voted by a large majority (say five-sixths) of the House to be unfit to take part in the deliberations of well-behaved and civilised people, ought to be sent home to his business (whether pig-dealing, provision-selling, or whatever the business might be), and the locality that returned him, having proved itself unfit to send up a suitable representative, should be disfranchised. This would help to save the English form of representative government from being the failure wise Prince Albert foretold that it might possibly turn out to be. wlreanion -A- w o r d about the arbitration between landlord landlord and a n d t e n a n t suggested above. Each case would require its own arbitration ; for no two are exactly alike. Any legislation to include all in a lump must be unjust. A word about anti-landlordism. 011 kid'ers. ^' Irish tenants buying their farms means tenants ABOUT IRELAND. 55 borrowing money of the money-lenders to buy them with. Then would come refusal to pay the interest, as there is now refusal to pay rent, and attempts to drive the money-lenders out of the country, just as now there are attempts, even in civilised Germany, to drive the money-lending Jews out of the country, under similar circumstances. Money spent by Government in reclaiming land Reclaiming would perhaps not do much harm. It would probably be lost, but that would not matter much ; and it would of course be managed badly, for Government doings of the sort are always managed badly, and generally end in jobbery. Still, somebody doubtless would gain something, if it were only the jobbers. T h e Irish Celt has a passion to be " an Indheepindent Jhintleman." Therefore, if all the present landlords were swept away, there would at once begin to spring up like mushrooms all over the country hordes of new little landlords—little pauper squireens, idle, drunken, and rack-renting. How much would this mend matters ? After a time these Landiordsquireens would be bought out by capitalists, large landlords would take their places, and the whole system of landlordism as it now is would grow up again. In the meantime, a hundred years of civilisation would have been thrown away. A t any rate, this was Mr. Gladstone's argument ten years ago against fixity of tenure, only it was, as need hardly be said, put into much more beautiful words. All people seem to get confused in their ideas Freedom of when they^begin to talk about Ireland. For instance, * in what strange and confused ways people are talking 56 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING about freedom of contract! No Government can prevent one man making a promise to another, and no Government can make breach of truth virtuous, lies right, or truth and honesty wrong, or prevent nature's inevitable retribution for wrong-doing—no, not if the Government were backed up by " an enlightened public opinion " to any amount whatever. T h e experience of ages has settled the question that virtue means happiness and vice misery. T h e " enlightened public opinion " of those days might have decreed that the private lives of Nero and Caligula were virtuous and exemplary. But this would not have made them so, nor done anything whatever towards making them so. Pamdiism. If there is a fraction of truth in history and science, Parnellism, carried out permanently and successfully, must mean in the long run Ireland being deserted by capital and by all superior and improving people, and the country given up to the merely numerical majority—that is to say, to hordes of lazy, dirty, drunken, rowdy, Roman Catholic, potato-eating, pauper peasants, pauper squireens, and pauper priests, all persecuting with the utmost intolerance any Protestants who might still be left in the country, and never losing an opportunity that might be offered them to manifest that hatred of England and the English, degraded people so often manifest towards those who are superior to them. " Virtue and goodness," says Shakspeare, " to the vile seem vile." Amongst the above remedies for Irish savagery, the eleventh was to disfranchise certain localities. Over these disfranchised localities a governor with absolute powers should be appointed. Clever selection of one, together with modern publicity and the ABOUT IRELAND. 57 mo lern newspaper press, will prevent the abuses of absolute power so common in ancient times. T h e doctrine of Quaker quietism is that " force Force no "^ x remedy. is no remedy." But the fact is that the criminal classes, and many barbarous and semi-barbarous peoples, can be made to behave decently only by force acting upon them, either directly or by fear of it. There is a strange idea afloat that every race of barbarians should be governed according to the ideas of that race. A theoretical governor of a jail once acted on this idea. Next morning he and his wife and family were found murdered, the jail on fire, and the prisoners escaped. Criminals are simply barbarians of a low type, whose development has been arrested. All savages are thieves, liars, and possible murderers, though of course they have their savage virtues. Even Bill Sykes was fond of Nancy till he murdered her, and of his dog till he hanged him. Some savage tribes consider the power to steal with success an actually divine attribute; and under this idea they call the Supreme Being " T h e Great Thief," this being, in fact, the highest name they can think of. T o repeat what has been said above, in the matter of stealing, savages and criminals are alike. T h e intelligent reader will not need to be reminded that to refuse to pay a debt where it can be paid— that is, to keep from your neighbour what is his—is identically the same crime as to steal it from him. Rulers of men may be divided into two classes: the Christian militant ruler and the limp-and-flabby or non-ruling ruler. T h e first of these classes wages 58 WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING a never-ending war with all vice, folly, dirt, unrighteousness, lawlessness, dishonesty, idleness, and crime, insisting on the contrary to these things at the point of the bayonet if there is no other way ; and yet combining with all this the utmost Christian tenderness and compassion, wherever these things are consistent with the stern repression of criminality, disorder, and savagery. T h e peace-at-any-price or non-ruling ruler of men is very different. Wellmeaning, though ignorant and narrow-minded, he is generally engaged in trade, or, at any rate, seldom belongs hereditarily to what is called the governing classes. Though he knows the lower races of men to be ill-behaved, he says, " Do leave the poor, dear, lazy, lying, dirty people alone, and then they will very likely not cut your throat; but if you interfere with them nobody can tell what they Won't do." A land " flowing with milk and honey," that might be dotted over with the happy homes of thousands or millions of industrious, orderly, and civilised people, stretches out as far as the eye can reach. This country is inhabited by a dark-skinned person who is dressed in grease and cow-dung, with a skewer through his nose for ornament, and who lives for the most part by thieving and plunder. It is proposed to annex or make use of this country. " No," says the limp-and-flabby or non-ruling ruler of men, " to do this thing would be unjust to the owners of the country. It might also lead to bloodshed, and bloodshed is unchristian. Besides this, to annex the country would certainly end in expenditure of money. Now, money is a thing to make, not to spend, making it being, in fact, ' t h e whole duty of man/ ABOUT IRELAND. 59 As to the living by thieving and plunder, it should never be forgotten that every race of men should be allowed to manage itself according to its own ideas." Government settling the price to be paid for hiring an acre of land must surely mean Government settling also the price to be paid for hiring a house, for hiring a horse, for hiring a cart, for hiring a labourer, for buying a cow—in fact, for any hiring, buying, and selling whatever. People say that landowners have a monopoly of the land they let. Well, so have horse-owners a monopoly of the horses they let. So has every trade a monopoly of the goods it trades in. As to reclaiming waste land with Government money, once make life and property permanently secure and capital will go to the country, waste lands will be reclaimed that are worth reclaiming, and infinitely more money will be laid out for the purpose than anybody proposes that the Government should spend, lend, give, waste, or throw away, as the case might turn out to be. It seems that in constitutionally governed countries The two Members of Parliament to be useful must belong to parties. one of two great parties. T h e best way yet discovered for getting at the right of a dispute is by paying lawyers on each side to look, not for truth, but for the best argument on each side. Then a result more or less just will be arrived at. So it is with a constitutionally governed country. T h e best way yet discovered for getting at the rights of a political question is by the country paying (by power, position, and place) Members of Parliament on each side to look, not for truth, but for arguments, 6o WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING each for his own side. In this way a rough result more or less satisfactory will be arrived at. Thus we see that a Member of Parliament to be of use must be a party man, just for the same reason that a lawyer to be of use must be one. In England there is a good deal of confusion in naming these two parties. Whig and Tory have about lost the little definite meaning they ever had. A t any rate " Conservative " is a more expressive word than the latter. Now, the opposite to conserving or preserving L destroying; therefore, logically the opposite party ought to be called "destructive." Nor is there any reason why it should not be so called, for if only two parties are allowed to exist in politics, they should be called by the extremes. Accurate classification becomes impossible. These two names then may be said to represent generally the party of contented people and the opposite party of discontented people, into which two parties mankind naturally divides itself, both of them being, of course, necessary, the one to ensure sufficient stability in human affairs, the other to ensure changes in one direction or another, when such changes are wanted. Science has the advantage of being exalted above these party ties and this party feeling. Its business is to look solely for truth—to be neither conservative nor destructive, but liberal—that is to say, liberal-minded, or free from bigotry, bias, partiality, or one-sidedness of every kind. T h e above 39 questions that are being put by the science of the day, will not be universally understood —certainly not at least by many somewhat old people whose ideas have become ossified. Ideas that are in any degree new, require some time before ABOUT 6l IRELAND. they take hold of the mind of the general public. Still, as the scientific discoveries of one generation become (where they are true) the commonplace truisms of the next, it is only waiting a few years after all. One final recommendation to our rulers. Read this pamphlet for your own instruction and Throw this then throw it into the waste-paper basket, for your int0 the -»••*• 7 J waste-paper master, the average British elector, will assuredlybasket* Siot allow you to act in accordance with one thing that is in it, inasmuch as, although a very admirable person, your master is too ignorant of history, too ignorant of science, too ignorant of sociology, too ignorant of human nature, too ignorant about the lower races, and too narrow and too insular in his ideas and feelings to believe in, or perhaps even to understand, a word that is written therein. ( 62 ) APPENDIX A. I F any one could be expected to disagree with what has been written in this pamphlet it would be the strong party paper the ' Spectator,' and yet what does it say ? The ' Spectator' (January 29, 1881) says that the Irish are not fit for liberty; that law constitutionally carried out is no use - in Ireland ; that redress of grievances has no influence towards producing content, but that any attempts that way only produce increase of wrongdoing; that the more justly Irishmen are governed the more difficult they become to govern; that the more forbearance is shown to the Irish the less successful is the government of them ; that the more is done for Ireland the more impossible it becomes to govern her; that freedom, which should develop morality, only makes the Irish despise the Eighth Commandment ( " Thou shalt not s t e a l " ) ; that self-government only fosters disobedience to the Sixth Commandment ( " Thou shalt do no murder " ) ; that if we are gentle we are hated; that if we are just we are hated more; that there is little hope for the future; that the strongest optimist cannot believe that any concessions will produce content or that any change of circumstances will improve conditions; that though sometimes in desperate circumstances there is hope, here there is n o n e ; that there is no hope for Ireland in separation; that there is no hope anywhere ; that statesmanship is useless; that we have conciliated for fifty years in vain, for that to-day Ireland is less governed by Christianity, utility, or genuine patriotism than it was fifty years ago; that everybody would be glad to welcome, in exchange for Parnellism, O'Connellism and the Pope's brass band; that we all should be delighted to have to deal only with the fanatics and rebels of 1848; that English plans for Ireland all go awry; that of Irish plans there are none except immoralities and impossibilities; and so the ' Spectator' goes on complaining and actually seeming surprised and puzzled that all this should be so. And yet, the smallest knowledge of anthropology would have taught the writer that from the character of the Irish all he has written about them must be true and could not have been otherwise, and that, therefore, meddling class legis- APPENDIX. 63 lation, such as the forced establishment of a peasant proprietary, contrary to the natural working of things or economic laws of nature (what the old Hebrews used to call, perhaps with more fitness, " the laws of God ") as also such things as robbing one class (and that the civilised and civilising one) and giving the plunder to another class (and that the low type and barbarising one), must result in the multiplication without limit, and perpetuity without end, of pauperism, famines, and misery; and yet the ' Spectator' is in favour of such legislation. The fact is, any legislation of this kind must be the extreme of cruelty. If ensuring the lingering and miserable death by starvation of one person is cruel, what must it be to ensure the ultimate unlimited multiplication of this misery by giving enormously increased facilities for over-populating an already over-populated country ? It is a risky business tinkering at nature's laws. After the above admirably true account of the hopelessness of making the " Wild Irishman " or " Barbarous Celt" contented and civilised by concession and " governing Ireland according to Irish ideas," the writer in the ' Spectator' finishes by saying that there must be some remedies that would prove successful, though no one can see what they should b e ; for to deny this would be pessimism, and pessimism means taking false views. Now this is about as pretty a piece of confusion of mind as one often comes across, and makes one suspect the gentleman who wTrote it to have himself some Irish blood in him. A pessimist means a man who takes a more hopeless view than facts warrant. But the only question to ask is, what views do the facts warrant, not what some silly pessimists think or not think. There certainly are remedies for Ireland that would work slowly for good by the gradual improvement of the breed and elimination of the more barbarous elements, and these remedies have been indicated in the preceding pages. Land leaguers say that Irish legislation about land and other things ought to be in accordance with the ancient ideas the Irish barbarians used to have before superior races conquered them. This is exactly what the ancient Britons (a partially civilised and agricultural Celtic people) used to say after the Romans had conquered them and forced them to put an end to their frightful Druidical human sacrifices and to all their barbarous practices and laws. They acknowledged themselves to be conquered, but said their conquerors ought to govern them according to their own ideas. Very properly the Romans did nothing of the kind; whereupon the ideas, laws, and customs of the British Celt died out, the ideas, 64 APPENDIX. laws, and customs,of superior races took their places, and, just as in Ireland, the original inhabitants were driven westward to the Welsh mountains, where they were allowed to remain, because the Welsh mountains were not worth taking from them. Once upon a time a question was asked about the manners and customs of a certain race of savages. The concise answer was, " Manners they have none, and their customs are beastly." I suppose the theorist who maunders about governing every race according to the ideas of that race would say that, in governing this race of savages, all about the beastly customs in question ought to be learned, and then everything done that was possible to carry them out. The State trials, of course, failed; whereat the 'Spectator' newspaper with charming simplicity begins to suspect that the jury system is not suited for the Irish Celt. Of course it is not suited for the Irish Celt. Science knows this without experience from its anthropological knowledge of the lower races and their different characters. But all history proves it also for those who have no knowledge of science. Just one historical illustration—a story Daniel O'Connell was very fond of relating. He, O'Connell, was once defending, as counsel, before an Irish jury, a man charged with murder. O'Connell made no speech to the jury, contenting himself with producing in the witness-box the murdered man alive and well. The case was connected with politics. Party feeling ran high, and the jury, after a very short consultation, brought in a unanimous verdict of " Guilty." Now, this surprises an ignorant and honest Englishman, but for an Englishman who is not ignorant, it is just what he would expect beforehand from his knowledge of that particular type to which the Irish Celt belongs. ( 65 ) APPENDIX B. A WORD more about war and industrialism. Democracies are warlike. Perhaps the Americans are the most warlike people that have ever existed in the world. Therefore if it should happen in the course of a few years, when they have recovered from their last war and are ready for another, that some quarrel witt| this country should excite them, and the invasion of England be proposed, volunteers would offer themselves by hundreds and hundreds of thousands. Woe betide us then if in accordance with mere commercial instincts we have renounced our colonies, which requiring as they do unceasing wars, keep us up to fighting mark ! Woe betide us then if in accordance with the prognostications of sociological science that it must do so, free trade ideas have killed patriotism ! Woe betide us then if we have degenerated into a nation of helpless industrialists, with a rich class made helpless also by generations of luxury, and with a spoilt working class hanging on to its Government's apron strings, unceasingly crying out helplessly to that Government for everything it wants, and getting it for its vote's sake, and consequently deteriorating more and more each generation in manliness, self-dependence, industry, and energy ! Woe betide us then if with insular and illusory selfcongratulations we trust for our defence to natural advantages of position, such as " the silver streak," and to such defences alone! What can silver streaks do in the long run against human passions, human ambitions, and human energies ? In the course of a few years vast steam-ships without number will be constantly crossing the Atlantic, and for a country containing from eighty to a hundred "millions of inhabitants, to send over an army of five hundred thousand men will be just nothing—especially when assisted (if the Irish are to be governed according to Irish ideas) by a very largely increased population of semi-pauper, semibarbarous peasant proprietors, and semi-pauper, semi-barbarous petty squireens, in an island close to our shores, every individual peasant or squireen amongst them hating the English as only an Irishman can hate them. The old Prussian soldier, Blucher, when first he saw London, exclaimed " M e i n Gott, was fur Pliinderung!" F 66 APPENDIX. After all, there will be one comfort for the sanguine believer in the future of the human race—that is, if he takes very broad views. If England does become a nation of mere industrialists, with all manliness and independent energy eliminated out, the sooner some race more fit to survive takes their place the better. Foolish people think war unchristian. But Christianity did not come " to send peace on earth, but a sword." Christianity does not alter the things men do, but only the spirit in which they do them. Human life must go on, Christianity or no Christianity. Eating, drinking, buying, selling, marrying, and fighting are still necessities, only Christianity sanctifies them, that is, puts into them the spirit Christ put into them. It puts temperance into eating and drinking, honesty into buying and selling, love and affection into marrying, and humanity into fighting. It makes men pity what is below them, reverence and worship what is above them, believe in " things working together for good," hope in the future, rejoice in the present, " endure hardness," " do with the whole might what the hand finds to do," and strive with passionate hunger and thirst after righteousness, as well as after the punishment of wickedness and vice, savagery, disorder, and wrong. To think that Christianity only means negative Quakerism and the feminine sentiments is to be either a mediaeval anchorite or a modern quietist—it is to take one facet of life for the whole. The peace-at-any-price sect doubtless believe that their principles come from Christianity, but they really come for the most part from commercial-mindedness, insular isolation, narrow surroundings, Quaker quietism, much appreciation of material things, little appreciation of great or heroic ones, and last but not least, a certain distaste for being shot. ( 67 ) APPENDIX C. ENGLAND was once peopled by ancient Britons; that is to say by a Celtic race, though a superior one to the Irish variety. Governing races of men according to the ideas of those races had, fortunately for England, not yet been invented; so the laws of nature had full swing, and superior conquering races, Saxons, Normans, Romans, Danes, Norsemen, & c , took the places of the aboriginal Celts. The worst of these died out, others were driven to the Welsh mountains, while those that remained in England were improved by mixing their blood with the conquerors. In these ways the fittest survived. The reasons why the same natural processes have gone on so slowly in Ireland are that Ireland is further removed from the comparatively civilised world and from the superior conquering races; that the soil of Ireland is poorer than that of England and not so much worth taking possession of; and that the laws of nature have been more meddled with by ignorant legislators. Thus it is that the unfittest have survived for so long a time. Just as formerly in England, the cure for Ireland is gradual elimination, according to the stern laws of nature (that is to say, the stern laws of God), of the lowest, the worst, and the most degraded part of the Irish Celtic population, and for the rest, the gradual admixture of blood with superior races. This is the only possible ultimate cure. Most of the proposed ones are nothing but quack medicines that must do harm, and some of them infinite harm, and the doctors who administer such medicines cannot be too often reminded of Herbert Spencer's teaching that meddling legislation often works differently from and generally opposite to the way it is intended to work. " Man's purpose," says R. H. Hutton, " destroys what it intends to create and creates what it intends to destroy. Political purpose puts a duty on tea and finds to its horror that it has enfranchised a continent. Religious purpose crucifies a Syrian carpenter and learns too late that it has helped the world to the very fate it hoped to extinguish." Human life on this earth means unceasing struggle, those in the struggle who display most greatness of character (energy, intelligence, and righteous conduct) surviving from being fittest to survive. This 68 APPENDIX. process goes on best where there is most liberty; that is to say, where there is least meddling legislation that interferes with transactions between one man and another; though, of course, in matters of crime and disorder, there ought to be not only interference, but interference rapid and effectual. All this is the proved doctrine of modern science, arrived at by observing facts and by disregarding alike the dreams of pseudo-humanity, of cravers after communism or equality at the expense of liberty, and of industrial millenarians who believe in a coming reign on the earth of peace and money-making for a thousand years. 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