54 John Dillon's Opinions [1903 



to look upon the Irish Party as its sole reliable support. Also I need 

 not say how warmly I sympathize with your triumph in having brought 

 our Government to the position where it stands to-day, of having 

 abandoned its secular policy of governing Ireland in the interests of the 

 English " garrison." 



" ' I look upon the new Land Bill, if as I hope it passes the seconJ 

 reading, as the first piece of quite honest legislation for Ireland which 

 will have been carried through Parliament in my recollection, and the 

 certain prelude, however little the Government may have it in their 

 minds, some day of Home Rule. In a few years you will have the 

 present Landlords, who will be still considerable Land-owners in their 

 demesnes, all with you as enthusiastic Irishmen ; and then, with the 

 country united for Home Rule, Home Rule must come. 

 " ' Therefore I wish, as always, more power to your elbow.' 

 " $th May. — John Dillon came to see me early and gave me his 

 views of the situation very frankly. He spoke last night in support of 

 the Bill, but he tells me that but for loyalty to his party he should be 

 inclined to oppose it in Committee and vote against it on the third 

 reading. His view is that it is useless trying to get the landlord 

 class on the side of Nationalism, that they would always betray it 

 when the pinch came, that the land trouble is a weapcn in Nationalist 

 hands, and that to settle it finally would be to risk Home Rule, which 

 otherwise must come. For this reason he was opposed to the Confer- 

 ence with the landlords, and was opposed now in principle to the Bill. 

 He should, however, of course, support it, since it had been decided to 

 do so, for the one thing for Ireland was union in the Parliamentary 

 Party. As long as that was maintained they commanded the situation 

 in the House of Commons, and no matter what party was in power it 

 would have to be their servant. We then discussed the prospects of a 

 change of Government. He said that Rosebery would certainly be in 

 the next Cabinet, probably at the head of it; that though he was thor- 

 oughly contemptible as a politician, he held them all through social 

 influences. Harcourt was sick, perhaps dying ; Campbell-Bannerman 

 was weak ; Morley had no power of leadership. Rosebery quite re- 

 cently had made advances to Lloyd George, the most able of the Rad- 

 icals, and Lloyd George had responded. To him,, Dillon, it was a 

 matter of indifference which of them was leader, or who became Prime 

 Minister. The Liberal Party could not help itself and would' be 

 obliged to give Home Rule. All that was wanted in Ireland was 

 patience and to keep the Parliamentary party together. United they 

 had nothing to fear, even from their worst enemy, Chamberlain. I 

 told him I thought there was a chance of Chamberlain heading a new 

 Unionist schism, and that if he came into power on these lines with 

 the popularity he had acquired by his imperialistic antics he would dis- 



